The day has finally come – the beginning of the streetscape improvement project on San Marco Boulevard. It feels like just yesterday that we were finding alternate routes from Hendricks Avenue because of the same project on that street. It quickly passes and Hendricks Avenue looks amazing, and San Marco Boulevard will too once it is complete. The city has vaguely hinted at February as the completion date for the road improvements.

Starting this Monday, southbound lanes of San Marco Boulevard from Gary Street to Cedar Street will be closed. Southbound traffic will be detoured west to Gary Street, then south on Palm Avenue and back east onto San Marco Boulevard via Cedar Street. Northbound lanes will remain open during this phase.

The southbound lanes between Gary Street and Cedar Street is the first phase of improving San Marco Boulevard. The improvements, once complete will start at Prudential and San Marco Boulevard and go all the way to Naldo and San Marco Boulevard. The construction will be completed in two block phases. Each phase will be completed before another begins.

Street improvements match the existing improvements on Hendricks Avenue: historic streetlights and signage, brick pavers, crosswalk accents, benches, trash cans, roadway re-paving, new curbs and gutters, new drainage inlets, and upgraded mast arm traffic signals.

And get ready for confused drivers because there will be two roundabouts put in. One at Naldo and one at Landon. Now I know this is not Europe but we will all need to be prepared to drive through a roundabout in a civilized fashion. If you don’t know the rules of the road for roundabouts now would be a good time to look that up.