43
Youngstown panel OKs contract for street project near amphitheater
YOUNGSTOWN
The city’s board of control approved an engineering contract for a major improvement project to a downtown street that won’t be done until 2022.
The board signed off on a $170,343 contract Thursday with GPD Group of Youngstown for work on Front Street – where the Youngstown Foundation Amphitheater will be built – between the Marshall Street Bridge and South Avenue.
The board also approved an agreement with the Ohio Department of Transportation for funding for the project. The work is expected to cost $1,239,800, with 80 percent of the money coming from the state and the rest, $247,960, coming from the city’s license-fee fund.
If the work costs more, the city would have to pay the additional amount, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works. But he also said the city would look for other funding sources to help offset the local share of the expense.
Part of the project includes “making sidewalks larger to make it more pedestrian-friendly with the amphitheater” off that street, he said.
The work also includes paving, new curbs, new lighting and utility work, Shasho said.
GPD will also likely recommend at least one lane of vehicular traffic be eliminated, Shasho said. Currently, the street mostly has two lanes of traffic in each direction, but increases to three lanes in the westbound lane in parts.
The project would take about four months to complete and would be done during the warmer months of 2022, Shasho said. There would be lane restrictions during the work, but the street won’t be closed, he said.