PRIEST RIVER — After years of discussion and planning, the city’s downtown revitalization project is officially underway.

Crews broke ground on the project last week after the timeline was moved up per the contractor’s request. It was initially supposed to start in July, with crews working into the fall. After Earthworks Northwest was awarded the project bid in April, however, they approached City Council recently with a request to adjust the schedule.

“They had availability and sought to get started immediately to avoid a late summer/fall construction, when finishing projects can be a race against weather,” Matt Gillis with Welch Comer Engineers said in an email to the Daily Bee.

In exchange for allowing work to start early, Gillis said the city had a few requirements for the contractor. First, in the event the contractor encountered wet soil conditions due to spring weather, no additional time or money would be provided by the city. Also, to accommodate the city’s Timber Days celebration, which includes a car show, parade and other activities, Earthworks is contractually required to have High Street paved, sidewalks poured, and the site secure and ready for festivities by July 25. After Timber Days, work on the project will resume.

“Overall, project completion is expected sometime in the first half of August,” Gillis said, adding that construction is “currently progressing well.”

Talk of revitalizing Priest River’s downtown dates back as far as 2004, though it wasn’t until 2008 when the project began to take shape. That year, a group of University of Idaho students from the landscape architecture program came in and worked with the public to get some different ideas of what the downtown revitalization might look like. Another four or five years went by and the city put together a steering committee of local residents and business owners to determine what people would want to see downtown. Then, in 2015, the final conceptual drawings were ultimately approved and the city began looking for funding. The city was awarded a block grant in 2017 from the Department of Commerce for $500,000, and this year the city was awarded $1 million through the Local Strategic Initiatives program, administered by the Local Highway Technical Assistance Council.

The project focuses on the downtown area of Main and High streets, with improvements to sidewalks, parking, foliage, lighting and more.

On Tuesday, the Priest River Police Department posted on social media that High Street from Cedar to Wisconsin is closed to all traffic, as well as a portion of Main Street. PRPD advises people not to go around the road closed signs as there are major hazards in the roadway, along with a lot of heavy equipment. The penalty for this offense is a $90 ticket.

“We realize it is an inconvenience, but when it is finished we will have beautiful new streets and sidewalks for everyone to enjoy,” PRPD said in the post.

Mary Malone can be reached by email at mmalone@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @MaryDailyBee.