YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of control today will close out the last major downtown street improvement project for the foreseeable future with the approval of the eighth and final change order for work done to Boardman and Walnut streets.

This project concludes about six years worth of work to downtown streets, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works.

“Another project comes to a close and another improvement to downtown,” Shasho said. “It’s been a ride, but these things take time. In 10 years, there will be other projects. We have nothing else planned for downtown.”

One long-range project is the paving of West Boardman Street between Market Street and Vindicator Square, Shasho said.

Shasho said: “We will look for funding for that. But it can be years from now.”

Most of the work done since 2020 was part of the SMART2 (Strategic and Sustainable, Medical and Manufacturing, Academic and Arts, Residential and Recreation and Technology and Training) Network.

That $27.65 million project, which received a $10.85 million federal grant, repaved several streets as well as reduced vehicular lanes, widened sidewalks, realigned curbs, and added crosswalks, bicycle lanes and islands in the middle of the streets.

The work was done to Federal, Front, Commerce and South Phelps streets and Fifth and Rayen avenues.

In front of the board of control today is a $108,160.73 reduction for miscellaneous items not needed in the project, Shasho said.

The final amount to be paid to Parella-Pannunzio Inc. of Youngstown, which did the work, is $2,859,303.90. The awarded amount was $2,756,473.

With the eight change orders, the project’s cost increased by $102,830.90, about 3.7%. That included unanticipated work such as a water tie-in and trenching for lighting.

The city received $2.1 million in state and federal funds for the project with the rest paid from city dollars.

The work finished in late May, Shasho said.

The work was to Boardman Street between Walnut and Market streets, and Walnut Street between Commerce and Wood streets.

The work included repaving, reducing vehicular lanes, adding diagonal on-street parking on Walnut Street, new crosswalks and curb ramps, improved lighting, landscaping and new traffic controls.

The project also featured a pedestrian walkway, or step street, on Walnut near the Choffin Career and Technical Center at the top and a parking lot for the downtown YMCA at the bottom. It’s the second set of concrete steps with a few landings and landscaping with the other on the west side of downtown near Phelps Street.

Much of the work was done last year, but a final layer of asphalt, pavement markings and signage had to wait until a couple of months ago.