The Eastgate Regional Council of Governments has been awarded a $979,200 Community Planning Grant to study the feasibility of removing a 1.5-mile section of the Madison Avenue Expressway in Youngstown and converting it into a low-speed boulevard between MLK Boulevard and Andrews Avenue.
The grant, recently awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Reconnecting Communities Pilot Program, could impact the more than 16,000 drivers who use the highway daily.
According to the Council, the construction of the expressway in the 1960s severed the neighborhood, leading to the decline and displacement of residents.
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…