YOUNGSTOWN — City council today is expected to approve legislation for a downtown waterline replacement project at a cost of up to $1.2 million, and for a contract of no more than $100,000 to oversee the demolition of the Crescent Street Bridge.

Council’s finance committee met Tuesday and recommended the full council approve both proposals at tonight’s meeting.

One ordinance permits the board of control to seek proposals and enter into a contract with a company for the replacement of a 16-inch waterline on Front Street between Marshall Street and South Avenue.

“It’s the main line through the downtown area,” said Harry L. Johnson III, water commissioner.

The project will start in April and take about 90 days to complete, he said.

The work was supposed to be done last year, but because of financial issues facing the water department as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, it was decided to postpone it until this year, Johnson said.

There will be traffic restrictions when the work is being done, he said.

Front Street will undergo an even bigger project next year.

As part of the SMART2 (Strategic and Sustainable, Medical and Manufacturing, Academic and Arts, Residential and Recreation, and Technology and Training) Network project, Front Street will be paved in 2022. It will get new lighting, streetscaping, the addition of multi-use path and a reduction to what is now two to three lanes in each direction to one in each direction with a turning lane.

BRIDGE TO NOWHERE

Council will also vote today on allowing the board of control to enter into a contract with a company to perform construction inspection and administration for the Crescent Street Bridge removal at a cost of up to $100,000.

The demolition of the 78-foot steel girder bridge over an abandoned railroad line, just west of West Rayen Avenue, should start in the spring and be done in the summer.

Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, has called it “a bridge to nowhere.”

The space left by the removal of the bridge will be filled in and the roadway re-established at a lower elevation.

The project also includes right-of-way purchases, retaining wall improvements, a waterline replacement, and curb and sidewalk replacements.

The estimated cost of the work is $947,650 with state funding paying for all but $207,000, which will come from the city.

Councilwoman Samantha Turner, D-3rd Ward, asked Shasho on Tuesday why the city can’t do the inspection and administration work itself.

“There’s a little more oversight needed on this” than a typical road improvement project, he said. “We just don’t have the people to do it. We don’t have the capacity to do some of this work.”

dskolnick@tribtoday.com