To prepare for next year’s construction at Third Street and Wilson Avenue, demolition of the decades-old Hong Kong Restaurant on the intersection’s northeast corner has begun.

The demolition that began Monday is part of the Wilson Avenue Corridor Project, which will include improvements on Wilson, from Second to 15th streets. The $19 million project will include the addition of four raised medians at each corner to protect pedestrian and bicycle crossings from turning vehicles, new sidewalks and new traffic signals with more intelligent traffic detection.

The Wilson Avenue project is the first to be funded by the 2020 transportation bond. In July, the Bend City Council authorized an addition to the project to demolish the restaurant.

Only a “sliver” of the land where the Hong Kong Restaurant used to sit is needed for the intersection improvements, so much of the property, which is less than half an acre, will be usable, said Sinclair Burr, a senior project manager for the city, at a July 20 City Council meeting. The demolition of the restaurant was projected to cost around $108,000, according to an estimate from Burr.

“The building was situated so far to the southwest of that lot that we couldn’t get what we wanted to build without demolishing the building,” Burr said at the meeting.

Construction on the intersection is scheduled to begin next spring or summer after a new roundabout is built at 15th Street and Wilson Avenue along with sidewalk and bike lane improvements. A roundabout and semi-protected bike lane at Ninth Street and Wilson Avenue was completed earlier this year.