Sometime in 2026, Auburn’s Downtown Reconstruction Project should realize a new, three-to-four-story theater to replace the now demolished Auburn Avenue Theater, a new city park with a public gathering place to its east, and a major upgrade to the B Street Plaza across East Main Street.

But before all the shiny stuff goes up, there is a lot of work that will have to be done under Main Street.

As Project Engineer Matt Larson told the Auburn City Council in late March, the now completed design process on the project clarified that the city will have to close a part of Main Street for an extended period this summer.

“For how long?” asked Councilman Cliff Taylor.

“Three months,” Larson replied.

The closure will affect East Main from A Street Southeast to the B Street Plaza, and include sections westward to 1st Street Northeast. This is not because of the amount of work that has to be done in such a small footprint, Larson said, but because of underground utilities work and the addition of new curbs, gutters and sidewalks.

Larson said he has started conversations with downtown business owners about accommodating parking and ensuring that customers and employees can get to businesses during construction. He said the majority of businesses are “very positive” about the project and the city’s plans for ensuring access during that time.

Regarding the new theater, at the moment the city is analyzing contract agreements that will allow the contractor to begin design work this month.

As for the new light poles, Larson said, because of the competitive nature of the bidding process, the supplier requires that a project be under construction before they are shipped, and the poles must be ordered nine months ahead of time. They will arrive in September.

The city advertised the downtown project last week for competitive bidding, and expects to break ground sometime in May.

“Is there a way the city can work with the contractor ahead of time so we’re not waiting …to get those installed,” Councilmember Yolanda Trout Manuel inquired.

Larson said he would ask.

The downtown project is far from the only thing on the city’s plate.

In fact, the city has 40 capital projects on the table, 20 of them in the construction phase, and 28 in the design phase. The total value sums to more than $130 million over the life span of the project, which could vary from one to multiple years, not of the entire annual budget for road work.

Among these projects:

• A neighborhood improvements project that will fill some gaps in sidewalks, add street lighting and install additional traffic calming measures, including speed bumps, and narrowing roadways where it’s necessary to get drivers to slow down. City workers reached out to neighborhoods via online open houses and door-to-door conversations, Larson said, and public works will take the feedback it received from those conversations and put together a plan that implements the traffic calming measures. One notable improvement will be the installation of a raised crosswalk on M Street Southeast and 25th Street SE near Pioneer Elementary to allay concerns about speeding in that area.

• Installing rectangular rapid crossing beacon signals at currently uncontrolled pedestrian crossings and adding another raised crosswalk on M Street Southeast at 33rd Street SE near Gildo Rey Elementary School.