By David Skolnick

skolnick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

City council authorized the board of control to sign contracts with the Ohio Department of Transportation for major street improvement projects that are at least a couple of years away.

The proposals were approved Wednesday to allow design work to start this year, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works. The design work won’t be finished until 2019, he added.

Among the three projects is one that would be done in 2019 on Fifth Avenue from Federal Street to the Madison Avenue Expressway.

The project would cost about $3 million with the state paying 80 percent and the city paying the rest, Shasho said.

It should take about six months for the project to be finished, he said.

The work includes paving, storm-sewer separation, curbing, sidewalk replacements, a landscaping median near Stambaugh Stadium on the Youngstown State University campus and creating turning lanes in sections where there currently are three lanes in each direction, Shasho said.

The second improvement work would be on Front Street from the Marshall Street Bridge to South Avenue. The work would be done in 2022 and take four months to complete, Shasho said.

The city is trying to get this project done sooner if possible, he said.

This project would cost about $1.24 million with the state paying 80 percent and the city covering the rest.

The work is primarily paving, curbing and sidewalk improvements, Shasho said.

The other project approved by council is to replace traffic signals on the Fifth and Front stretches as well as Wick Avenue from Commerce Street to the Eastbound Service Road of the Madison Avenue Expressway to Commerce Street.

The work is scheduled for 2021, but the city is trying to get permission to do the work in 2019, Shasho said.

The project is estimated to cost $3.14 million with the state using federal funding to pay the entire tab, he said.

Wick Avenue from Wood Street to Eastbound Service Road has been closed since October for a major $4.1 million improvement project. That work is expected to be done by September.