Construction crews are set to begin work on the rebuilding of Reed Market Road next week.

The City of Bend hosted an open house Thursday night to brief local residents on the project. Funded under the $30 million 2011 bond approved by Bend voters, the Reed Market Road project will reconstruct three miles of road between Third and 27th streets, including the installation of a new roundabout at the intersection of Reed Market Road and 15th Street.

Crews will begin work on the eastern portion of the project between Newberry Drive and 27th Street starting next Wednesday, with work on the western portion not due to begin until September. The entire project is not scheduled to be completed until late summer 2014.

Nick Arnis, transportation engineering manager for the city, said unlike the roundabout, the eastern portion of the project has been almost controversy free. The handful of local residents who trickled through Thursday’s open house were largely positive in their conversations with city staff and contractors hired to design and build the project.

Notably, Reed Market Road will be built with concrete rather than the asphalt used on nearly every other road in Bend.

Arnis said until recently, asphalt was the more affordable choice, but higher oil prices — one of the key ingredients in asphalt — have largely equalized the price of the two materials. Concrete will be cheaper to maintain over time, he said, as the city will be able to skip the asphalt overlays a major road like Reed Market would likely see every 10 years or so.

The eastern 100 yards or so of the project will be built with asphalt, as it’s possible the road will need to be torn up in the near future for the installation of a major sewer line.

Chris Chambers from Devtech Engineering said that by dividing the project into three stages, the inconvenience to those who use Reed Market Road to get to and from their homes can be kept at a minimum. Many of the streets feeding into Reed Market Road don’t easily connect to other major east-west routes like Bear Creek Road, he said, making it likely many residents looking to go west will have to first detour east to 27th Street. As the reconstructed portions of Reed Market Road are completed, they will be reopened to local traffic.

Chambers said the improvements should greatly increase safety for all users of the road. A median will run down the center of most of the rebuilt road, except in places where a left-hand turn lane will be added for drivers turning across traffic onto the eight side streets intersecting Reed Market Road.

Bike lanes and sidewalks will be built along the full length of the project on both sides of the road, with the sidewalks separated from the roadway by a 7-foot to 10-foot strip of landscaping or grassy stormwater collection swales.

“A lot of people don’t walk on this corridor, because it’s dangerous now,” Chambers said.

Project manager David Abbas said the city is taking measures to minimize the interruption to residents living along the Reed Market Road corridor. A telephone hotline has been set up at 541-388-5547 to take calls from residents with questions or concerns, and those who prefer to communicate by email will be able to get in touch with the city at streetbond@ci.bend.or.us.

Abbas said nearly everyone he’s talked to has been eager to trade a few months of inconvenience for a rebuilt Reed Market Road.

“Everyone agrees its needed,” he said. “It’s construction. It’s going to be noisy and dirty and a burden for a bit, but everybody’s pretty excited about seeing it get done.”