SISTERS — A few dozen residents and a smattering of public officials braved a wet snowfall Saturday morning in Sisters, coming together to launch the city’s most ambitious road project in years.

Early Monday, crews will begin tearing up a stretch of Cascade Avenue, the first step in a 2½-month push to rebuild a six-block stretch of the city’s main street, also known as U.S. Highway 20.

The $6.6 million project, jointly funded by the city and the Oregon Department of Transportation, aims to fully replace and rebuild the road, and will also include wider sidewalks, curb extensions to make crossing the street easier for pedestrians and new landscaping and street lighting.

To minimize disruptions, most of the work will be done at night, and crews will work in two sections, completing the eastern three blocks before moving on to the western segment.

Saturday morning, officials gathered for brief speeches and the turning over of a ceremonial patch of earth with golden shovels, and lead contractor Knife River brought out some of its heavy equipment for kids to climb on and check out.

Brad Boyd, mayor of Sisters, said downtown will remain open for business through construction, even while through-traffic will be routed around the area on Barclay Avenue and Locust Street.

Main and Hood avenues, located, respectively, one block north and south of Cascade Avenue, will remain open throughout the project, he said, and large portions of Cascade Avenue will be unaffected while crews work their way from east to west.

“If you have a favorite business on Cascade Avenue, you can still visit it during this project,” he said.

Boyd said Sisters and ODOT have revised the construction plan repeatedly to minimize the inconvenience for local residents and businesses. In the earliest versions of the repair proposal shared with the public, the project would have taken five months, Boyd said, with much of the work during the day. The project that starts Monday will be complete in just 2½ months, with nearly all of the work at night.

“I think the vast majority of both residents and businesses in this town recognize the need for this project and are looking forward to the outcome,” he said.

Matt Garrett, statewide director of ODOT, said Sisters is fairly unique as one of the few cities in the state where a major highway also doubles as its primary downtown street. The plan developed over the past several years strikes an acceptable balance between pedestrian safety and through-traffic mobility, Garrett said.

“This piece of roadway here serves many masters, and that’s a challenge, and you need good people and partners to work through that,” he said.

The Cascade Avenue project is the first piece in a wider reconfiguration of the highway. The city has been working with ODOT to win approval for two roundabouts or signals on U.S. Highway 20, one at Barclay Avenue on the north side of town, one at Locust Street on the south.

Boyd said once those two intersections are updated, Sisters will have an alternative route along Barclay and Locust for through-traffic — not so much a bypass but a “pressure release valve,” in his words — that will nearly double the number of vehicles that can move through town.

Garrett said if ODOT signs off on the roundabout/signal proposal, construction at both intersections could begin in 2016.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387, shammers@bendbulletin.com