The week of Nov. 8-14 the city will commence to reconstruct Richland Avenue between Hatch and Herndon roads over a six-month period at a cost of $3.2 million.

It is the first of a few major roadway reconstruction projects that will be occurring in Ceres, said City Engineer Michael Beltran.

“They’ll start to see it ramp up into essentially the Thanksgiving week,” said Beltran. “The one thing I will say is that there is not an end date on there. We don’t know what to expect with El Nino, those types of things. So it is a 120 working day project, which is essentially six months. There’s 20 working days in a month, however, depending on our rain delays and those types of things, it may drag on beyond that, per the contract.”

In September the Ceres City Council approved a contract with United Pavement Maintenance, Inc. to improve roadway conditions and address deficiencies in the existing roadway and surrounding infrastructure.

The project includes roadway reconstruction and pavement improvements, upgrades to existing utilities, drainage improvements, concrete improvements, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) improvements, including the reconstruction of curb ramps and associated sidewalk improvements. The project will also include adjustments and relocations of existing utilities necessary to accommodate the proposed improvements.

The city and contractor plan to give residents and motorists advance notification through door-to-door notices and posted signage of upcoming construction activities.

“There’s actually quite a bit of work, about a thousand yards of concrete and the entire road will get reconstructed,” said Beltran. “There is a little bit of storm drainage that’ll happen on the south end near Herndon and you will see a water main project go out probably here in the next week or so for bid.”

The project comes on the heels of the Hatch Road finishing up.