YOUNGSTOWN — The city is planning a project, costing up to $6.12 million, to remove three low-head dams in the Mahoning River to improve water quality and clean contaminated sediment behind them.

City council will be asked Wednesday to approve three pieces of legislation related to the project.

The ordinances would permit the board of control to enter into agreements for the work with companies at a cost of up to $6.125 million, spend up to $200,000 to acquire parcels and easements for the work, and enter into an agreement with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to obtain $3.5 million from the Water Resource Restoration Sponsor Program to help fund the project.

The rest of the funding for the work will come from a state fund that uses LTV Steel settlement money to clean up the river, said Charles Shasho, the city’s deputy director of public works.

Shasho said, “The end result is a cleaned-up river. It’s another step in cleaning up the Mahoning River. There is sediment and heavy metals from the steel mills days that don’t disintegrate. The dams trap the sediment behind them and once the dams are removed that can flow downstream. So the sediment has to be cleaned first and then the dams removed.”

The dams are located by Crescent, Center and Marshall streets, Shasho said.

The city has received proposals for the work, which is a “design-build” project, meaning an engineer and contractor are hired as a team with the contractor starting the work shortly after the engineer has designed a certain amount of the project and continues to do the work as more of it is engineered, Shasho said.

The city will award the contract in about a month with the design work starting shortly after that, Shasho said.

The project is expected to end in 2028, Shasho said.

The removal of the three dams is part of a major, multi-year effort to remove nine low-head dams in the Mahoning River between Leavittsburg and Lowellville.

Four of the dams have been removed with the most controversial one being in Leavittburg. It was removed in October after six years of unsuccessful legal challenges by Warren Township.