YOUNGSTOWN — The board of control approved two contracts totaling $4,976,362 with MS Consultants Inc. for the Youngstown company to provide construction administration for the first two phases of a sewer interceptor project at Mill Creek Park and to design the latter two parts.

The board approved the two items by 3-0 votes at a Monday meeting.

The board consists of Mayor Derrick McDowell, Finance Director Kyle Miasek and Law Director Adam Buente.

Council voted Dec. 17 to authorize the board of control to enter into the contract for up to $5.5 million with MS to serve as the city’s construction administrator and field representative for the first two phases of the project. The cost came in at $523,638 under that amount.

MS has done extensive work on the city’s major wastewater improvement project, which is mandated by a federal consent decree.

That includes $4.8 million to design most of the first two phases of the project to avert wastewater from flowing into Mill Creek lakes. The board of control on Dec. 4 approved a $7.63 million contract with MS for design work for a wet weather facility that would treat excess combined sewage during heavy rainstorms.

Approved Monday were $1,849,218 for MS to handle the ongoing construction administration services for the first two phases and $3,127,144 to design the final two phases.

The first two phases of the Mill Creek project started in late December with Marucci & Gaffney Excavating Co. of Youngstown doing the work for $42,771,942. It will be finished no later than May 29, 2028.

The first two phases will be to Lake Glacier. It will eliminate four sewer overflows, replace 8,000 to 9,000 linear feet of sewer lines that range in size from 36 inches to 60 inches with a new 96-inch sewer line as well as bridge work, river crossings and lowering of the lake’s water level to help reduce overflows and the relocation of utilities.

The design work for phases 3 and 4 will take more than a year, with work expected to start in April 2028, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

Those two phases will eliminate 10 sewer overflows into the park’s Lake Cohasset. The work is supposed to be finished by September 2032.

In addition to eliminating the sewer overflows at Mill Creek Park, the city made major improvements at its wastewater treatment plant.

It will also construct an 80-million-gallon-per-day wet weather facility. The city was initially supposed to build a facility that held 100 million gallons per day, but successfully negotiated with the federal government in court to reduce that amount.

The city paid a $739,500 penalty Sept. 24 for missing the deadline on the wastewater treatment plant work and for missing an April 15, 2021, milestone to submit the preliminary design report for the Mill Creek sewer project.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency had originally ordered the city in 2002 to do $310 million worth of work, but it was negotiated down to $160 million in 2014 with the expectation it would be finished in 20 years.

The city plans to have all of the work done by Oct. 1, 2035.

The city wrote in court filings that if it complied with the mandates the cost would be about $380 million to $400 million — well over twice what it agreed to do 11 years ago. The wet weather facility reduction is expected to save the city about $60 million.