Photo provided by Eastgate Eastgate received a $979,000 grant to study the potential elimination of 1.5 miles of the Madison Avenue Expressway, pictured here.

YOUNGSTOWN — The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments received a $979,200 federal grant to study the possible elimination of a 1.5-mile stretch of the Madison Avenue Expressway on the city’s lower North Side, but any potential project is several years away.

“The infrastructure along the expressway is deteriorating, and this is an opportune time to look at ways to better use the area,” said Justin Mondok, Eastgate’s director of planning. “We believe we can fulfill the needs at a lesser cost and look at options.”

Stephen Zubyk, Eastgate’s director of transportation, said this study is the first of a multi-step process. The study may come up with a cost estimate for what can be done with the expressway, he said.

“If we ever get to construction, a perfect scenario is six to eight years” to complete the project, Zubyk said.

Julius Oliver, the councilman who represents the area, said he doesn’t support any plan to remove the expressway.

“I don’t see why we need to take it down,” said Oliver, D-1st Ward. “It would cut people off. I don’t see a point in doing that. I don’t always feel that Eastgate acts in the best interests of Youngstown.”

Zubyk said the study is an initial look at the expressway, and, “we could be completely wrong and not move ahead.”

Eastgate’s initial proposal is the elimination of a 1.5-mile portion of the expressway between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Andrews Avenue with plans to convert it into a low-speed boulevard for cars, bicycles and pedestrians. The plan would change that section of the road from a four-lane divided highway to a three- or four-lane surface street with gateway roundabouts, streetscape enhancements and at-grade intersections.

The project would open up about 25 to 30 acres of land to be repurposed as a potential greenspace, expansions of Youngstown State University and medical facilities — St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital is located there — and a mixed-use development, according to Eastgate’s proposal.

“The initial review is conceptual, but it’s certainly not an end product,” Mondok said. “We’ll be able to evaluate alternatives to put together a final and best project.”

It will be about three to six months before the study starts, Zubyk said. The study would take 12 to 18 months to complete, Mondok said.

The study is expected to be done in the latter half of 2026, Zubyk said.

Eastgate received the $979,200 grant for the study from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program.

Eastgate’s proposal states: “Construction of the Madison Avenue Expressway in the 1960s split the original neighborhood in half and severed community connectivity by constructing a trenched limited access freeway that created an imposing physical barrier, especially for pedestrians. Freeway construction led the project area to decline almost immediately as a larger number of homes were demolished to make way for the new expressway and many residents moved to outlying suburbs.”

Councilman Mike Ray, D-4th Ward, said: “It’s worth exploring. If the infrastructure is not needed or is outdated, it doesn’t make sense to spend millions of dollars maintaining it. It’s a feasibility study to see if it’s worth doing.”

Funding for the elimination of the stretch of Madison Avenue Expressway would need to be found.

Zubyk said getting funding for the study “is an important first step” toward receiving federal dollars for an actual project.

“The hardest step is getting our foot in the door,” he said. “We’ve done that so it sets us up well if it does warrant a project.”

Eastgate is an association of governments in Mahoning, Trumbull and Ashtabula counties that focuses on transportation, water and air quality, land-use planning and local infrastructure projects.

The Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program awarded $554.6 million for 81 projects — 66 community planning grants, including Eastgate, and 15 capital construction grants — in 31 states. The program received 403 applications seeking more than $3 billion, according to the federal DOT.

The program’s funding came from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The program’s primary goal is “to reconnect communities harmed by past transportation infrastructure decisions through community-supported planning activities and capital construction projects that are championed by those communities,” according to the U.S. DOT.

In Ohio, Dayton received a $2 million planning grant and Toledo received a $1,107,000 planning grant.

Cleveland received $69,291,428 for a downtown lakefront redevelopment project and Akron got $10 million for a reconnection project of a community divided by a highway — a plan that is similar to what Eastgate wants to consider with the Madison Avenue Expressway.