The end is coming. Hallelujah.

The sidewalk construction that has disrupted pedestrian and motor traffic on East Main Street all summer will be completed this week, project manager George Milligan told Urban County Council members last Thursday night.

Landscaping the rain gardens with plants and trees was scheduled to start Monday. Work crews will mill the asphalt on East Main Street on Wednesday. Repaving will happen on Thursday during the day, and the lanes will be striped Thursday night.

"We think there is light at the end of the tunnel," Milligan told council members last week.

Work began in February to construct sidewalks, curbs and rain gardens on both sides of East Main Street between Martin Luther King amd Rose Street. The project was scheduled for completion by the Fourth of July.

This last stretch took longer than scheduled because a 110-foot section of sanitary sewer line in the block in front of the Government Center had to be replaced. The ditch for the line was excavated, filled in with gravel during the Fourth of July celebration, then re-excavated.

The $2.7 million downtown streetscape plan began in August 2009 with a major overhaul of South Limestone that closed the street for about a year as new sewers and utility lines were laid, in addition to sidewalks and rain gardens.