YOUNGSTOWN — City council authorized the board of control to spend up to $2.6 million for a consultant to oversee a major improvement project of several downtown streets.

The consultant will handle construction inspection, design and administrative services for the city during the work, which is expected to go through 2022.

The board of control is scheduled today to hire Environmental Design Group, an Akron company, for $679,894 for the first phase of this project — an overhaul of Fifth Avenue. Council authorized the board to move ahead at a Wednesday meeting.

The company will be hired in the late summer for the second phase of the project and then sometime in 2021 for the final phase, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

The city board has to approve the contract in phases under the direction of the Ohio Department of Transportation, Shasho said.

“Like any project, we need to hire representation out there the whole day for three years for the various services we need,” he said.

Environmental Design Group was selected from four firms that submitted requests for qualifications, Shasho said. City officials deemed EDG to be the most qualified company, he said.

The board of control on May 7 hired Parella-Pannunzio Inc., an Austintown company, as the contractor on the Fifth Avenue project for $6,921,088. The city’s estimate for the work was $8,468,238.

The work will begin in about two weeks, Shasho said, and take up to a year to complete.

The project between West Federal Street and Eastbound Service Road reduces the number of lanes from two or three in each direction to one in each direction with turning lanes in several locations as well as new lighting, improved curbs and sidewalks, and a multi-use path for bicyclists and walkers.

There will be new traffic signals on the street with the removal of others there as well as at six other locations — three along Front Street and three on Wick Avenue.

This is the first part of the city’s SMART2 (Strategic and Sustainable, Medical and Manufacturing, Academic and Arts, Residential and Recreation, and Technology and Training) Network project.

The SMART2 project also will make improvements to Park and Rayen avenues as well as Commerce, Federal, Front and Phelps streets.

The city received a $10.85 million federal grant to help pay for the project.

The overall cost of the work is estimated at $31 million with funding and other assistance coming from the city, Youngstown State University, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, Mercy Health-Youngstown and Western Reserve Transit Authority as well as state and other federal funds.