Federal Street project in downtown Youngstown misses its due date

YOUNGSTOWN -- The improvement project on Federal Street -- one of downtown's busiest roads -- was supposed to be done by now, but more work is needed.

Regardless of what happens, the street will be opened for the city's Dec. 1 holiday parade, Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works, said.

Contractors finished the final street paving work a few days ago on West Federal Street from Fifth Avenue to Phelps Street.

West Federal from Hazel to Phelps streets will be closed until the parade and then after that be closed again for sidewalk work.

"When you pour sidewalks, you have a truck in the road and you can't get a car past it" because the project calls for fewer lanes of traffic so it's narrow, he

said.

The work can't be done in the rain so depending on the weather it could take a few additional weeks or it may be done in time for the parade, Shasho said.

Federal from Fifth Avenue to Hazel is opened to vehicular traffic but will have to be closed occasionally for sidewalk work, Shasho said. Even when there are daytime closures, that section of Federal Street will be open nights and weekends, he said.

The plan called for completion of the West Federal Street project by this past Friday.

Portions of that section of the street have been closed since January -- it closed in three phases -- leading to several business owners located on the road to complain about the project as it has kept people from coming downtown and has hurt their operations.

"We've all suffered through this," said Anne Massullo-Sabella, owner of Avalon Downtown, a restaurant at 17 W. Federal St. "It's been a lot. We came out of a pandemic that affected all of our businesses and then go into the street closing that seems like years and is never ending is very hard."

Massullo-Sabella said customers complain to business owners, who are not only unable to change things, but "are more frustrated than the people who complain. It's hard working around all of this."

She added: "The city never really notified any property owners and businesses that this was going to happen until it happened. I just want it over. That's the general sense with everyone down here."

OVERVIEW OF PROJECT

The work is part of a $27.65 million project on several downtown streets that began in July 2020. The project received $10.85 million in federal funding.

Federal Street work includes repaving, realignment of curbs, new crosswalks, new lighting, wider sidewalks and changes to parking.

The city initially had included similar work to Federal Street from Phelps to Champion streets in this project. But that had to be pulled from the job because several basements, including at the city-owned 20 Federal Place, were discovered in the right of way on sidewalks, Shasho said.

That section of Federal Street is being redesigned with work starting in summer 2024, Shasho said.

That work will take about three to four months to complete, forcing that section to be closed to vehicular traffic during that time, he said.

The improvements are part of the SMART2 (Strategic and Sustainable, Medical and Manufacturing, Academic and Arts, Residential and Recreation and Technology and Training) Network program that began with a $7 million improvement to Fifth Avenue between West Federal Street and Eastbound Service Road in July 2020.

Other work was done to Front, Commerce and South Phelps streets and Rayen Avenue.

Every street has experienced delays.

A condition to get the $10.85 million grant is the work must be finished by the end of 2024.

All of the work will get done by the end of next year as the city built in buffer time in the schedule, Shasho said.

One other final piece of this project, required as a condition of getting the federal grant, is an autonomous bus.

The city received two proposals for the bus in September and expects to award a contract by Christmas, Shasho said.

The bus will go between the Western Reserve Transit Authority's downtown bus station on the corner of West Federal Street and Fifth Avenue to Eastern Gateway Community College. That's only about 0.6 of a mile.

Also, even though the bus is self-driving, state law requires a driver be on the bus at all times, Shasho said.

"I wish it was a sexier project, but it's a boring old bus," he said. "It's a little anticlimactic that it won't be totally autonomous and it won't look like a spaceship or a bus from 'The Jetsons.'"

The city received two proposals for the self-driving bus: from Chang Industrial, headquartered in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., and Transdev with a U.S. headquarters in Lombard, Ill.

Shasho said the city needs time to go over the proposals because they incdluded multiple options including different types of buses, other add-ons and the choice to either purchase or lease the bus.