SALEM–With work set to begin on a project which will repave State Street and North Lincoln set to begin Monday residents should expect temporary parking restrictions and alternate traffic routes while work is ongoing.

“Starting on Monday [contractor Shelly & Sands] they’re going to be working on State Street and North Lincoln for quite a few weeks, so we want to make sure everyone knows ahead of time to plan accordingly,” said City Service Safety Director Joe Cappuzzello.

The project is set to begin work Monday morning, with work expected to continue weekly Monday through Wednesday for roughly 12-to-16 weeks weather permitting. While work is being done street parking on State will be suspended, and while work is being completed on narrower sections traffic will also be diverted. During a meeting to discuss between city officials and representatives from the Downtown Salem Partnership and Salem City School District with project contractor Shelly & Sands Wednesday Shelley & Sands Superintendent Bruce Pierce said that he would be aiming to start work at 7 a.m. on workdays and work for 10-11 hours each day and be concluded for the day by 6 p.m. barring complications after which traffic can be re-opened.

Throughout the process public parking will remain available downtown through the city’s municipal parking lots at the northeast corner of Ellsworth and State Street near the Chamber of Commerce office; on Second Street and North Lincoln Avenue which is connected to State Street by Sugartree Alley; and the two lots on East Pershing Street between Lundy Avenue and Penn Avenue across the street from the Timberlanes Complex, and at between Broadway and Lundy located between Ezio’s Italian Restaurant and Firestone Complete Auto Care.

“It’s a great project, I think it’s just over $1 million and its paid through the Ohio Department of Transportation and federal funding, we’re blessed for this. I know it’s going to be a disruption but at the end of the project we’re going to be very happy with what we’ve done,” said Cappuzzello

Pierce said that work was expected to begin Monday on West State Street with milling on the bridge between Sharp Avenue and Jennings Avenue and that the main line would be prioritized over intersections.

“What we plan on is five days on the millings and two weeks on the paving. That’s weather permitting and if nothing comes up. Monday morning what we want to do is down there at the bridge going out of town westbound, I want to mill that to the end and I’m going to try to cut back across the bridge,” said Pierce. “Your intersections go back ten feet; I don’t want to do that the first day what I want to do is get the main line done. What I’m going to concentrate on is getting that westbound side done and tied in clear across and back eastbound up to Ellsworth Avenue and I’m going to try to get all that done the first day if not it will bleed into Tuesday.”

Pierce said that while work continued from South Ellsworth to South Lincoln that traffic would have to be diverted “because there’s not enough room in there for anything else,” but that traffic should still be able to run up to that point and on Lincoln.

“They won’t be able to park there. There’s about 800 tons [of pavement] there, I should be able to get all that off there in a day. We’ll leave the intersections alone and then I’m going to go over to [North] Lincoln over there and I’ll be there a day, there’s about 1,500 tons coming off there,” said Pierce. “We have no problem with Lincoln because they’ll be able to run two-way traffic through there. You’ll be able to run the traffic and coming back over to State Street going westbound up to Ellsworth you’ll be able to run traffic, when you get to Ellsworth that’s where we’ll have to divert traffic until we get that milled off and everything ramped up.”

Pierce also said that during paving “in a perfect world” traffic would be able to continue up to Ellsworth but not parking.

Cappuzzello said that while he was sure what was discussed during the meeting would remain “95% accurate” that as the project carried on details would fluctuate to adjust for complications caused by weather and any other unforeseen issues. Cappuzzello also reminded residents that they can sign up to the city’s TextMyGov info line by texting “SALEM ALERTS” to 91896 or at the city’s website to remain up to date with everything going on in the city.

“We’ll be sending out updates throughout the whole project with TextMyGov to try to keep you up to date as much as possible. That gives you all information as soon as we have it about what’s going on in the city or any major occurrences,” said Cappuzzello.