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YOUNGSTOWN -- Demolition work for the long-closed West Avenue Bridge, across the Mahoning River, won't be done until summer 2028 despite the city getting a grant for the work more than three years ago.
This is the latest delay for the work to the 97-year-old, 286-foot-long bridge that closed July 25, 1986, and has greatly deteriorated since then. It was supposed to be demolished this year and then postponed in March to 2027 with the disclosure on Tuesday that it will happen in summer 2028.
The demolition is supposed to take 90 days.
The project is in the planning phase, which includes environmental studies, preliminary bridge demolition and temporary access plan design.
The project's total cost is $714,470.
The bridge was awarded a $606,375 grant in June 2023 to cover demolition with the city paying the cost of the engineering and environmental work.
The city's board of control voted March 12 to increase a $49,720 contract with MS Consultants Inc. of Youngstown to $108,095 for preliminary engineering services and environmental work for the demolition of the bridge.
The work has become more complicated and expensive because federal funding is involved; there was talk of possibly trying to save the bridge through historic preservation because the span goes across the Mahoning River, Charles Shasho, the city's deputy director of public works, has said.
The bridge, near the city's water department on the West Side, was built nearly 100 years ago. The nearly 300-foot bridge was closed to vehicular traffic on July 25, 1986, because of the loss of numerous structural sections. Blockades discourage people from walking and bicycling across it, and the Ohio Department of Transportation determined it "still poses a safety hazard to trespassing pedestrians" and "recreational users of the river."
The state historical society asked the city to look into the possibility of saving the bridge and turn it into a pedestrian/bicycle bridge. The city determined the bridge would need so much repair work that it would lose its historic value.
Despite that and its hazardous condition, ODOT determined the single-span steel Baltimore through truss is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for what is calls "its engineering significance as an example of early 20th-century steel truss bridge design and as one of only a limited number of Baltimore through truss bridges remaining in Ohio."
The state listed options for the bridge: removing it by cranes or a temporary causeway, rehabilitating it at its current location, relocating it to a new site or doing nothing. Doing nothing would result in the bridge eventually collapsing, according to ODOT.
ODOT stated: "The recommended alternative is the removal of the existing bridge by constructing a temporary causeway. This approach addresses the safety hazard for recreational users of the Mahoning River and eliminates the danger to trespassing pedestrians on West Avenue. It is more cost-effective than either rehabilitation alternative and provides a safer demolition approach."
Though the bridge is going to be demolished, questions and comments on the structure can be submitted to Shasho by email at publicworks@youngstownohio.gov or by calling 330-742-8800.
ODOT also has an online report of the bridge available at publicinput.com/WestAveBridge through Sept. 11.