YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning Avenue, one of the busiest streets on the city’s West Side, will undergo two significant improvement projects — one starting next year, and the second occurring in 2024 and 2025.

The first project goes from Oak Hill Avenue, where the street ends at the Spring Common Bridge and becomes Fifth Avenue, to Meridian Road, the city’s western border with Austintown.

The work includes the replacement of 10 traffic lights as well as sidewalk improvements and new curb ramps in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

The project is estimated at $2,078,093, but the cost won’t be known until the city seeks bids. The money for the work is coming from federal funds, Shasho said.

The city hired GPD Group, a national company with an office in Youngstown, for $540,000 in September 2019 for design work and engineering on the project. The firm also did a traffic study of the 10 lights to determine if any of the signals should be removed.

While Shasho had said in September 2019 that he expected Dunlap or Hazelwood avenues could see traffic lights eliminated, the study showed they are needed.

In addition to those streets, the Mahoning Avenue intersections that will have traffic lights replaced as well as the other improvements are: Meridian Road, Schenley Avenue, Belle Vista Avenue, Steel Street, Glenwood Avenue, Edwards Street, West Avenue and Oak Hill Avenue.

“The lights will be synchronized with loop detectors” that will allow them to remain green on Mahoning Avenue if there are no vehicles waiting on the side streets, Shasho said.

It is similar to what the city did in 2015 with its South Avenue traffic light project, he said.

Vehicular traffic to Mahoning Avenue and the side roads will be maintained during the project with no detours, Shasho said.

Most of the proposed work will be on existing rights-of-way roadway, but there are a few locations where small property purchases will be needed, Shasho said. That aspect of the project is what the city currently is focused on completing, he said.

In 2024 and 2025, Mahoning Avenue from the Interstate 680 ramp to Meridian Road will be repaved with catch basins replaced, Shasho said.

There is no cost estimate on that project yet.

“It will be done in two phases with part of it done in 2024 and the other part in 2025,” Shasho said. “We’re having it designed as one project.”

dskolnick@tribtoday.com