Work on reconstructing Broadway is slated to begin this week — and with it will come closures of a few streets.

Starting Wednesday, Fountain Street from Broadway to Washington Avenue will be closed, along with Broadway from Water Street to Fountain Street.

Access will be open to cars stopping at downtown businesses from Clark Street to Water Street but will be closed to through traffic, according to Michael Schmitz, senior engineering technician with Bolton & Menk, the engineering firm for the project.

After the stretch on Broadway from Fountain Street to Water Street, crews will move south down the street.

Schmitz said the goal is to have the north end of Broadway completed by the Fourth of July, as to not interfere with Independence Day festivities.

“It’s an exciting project and we’re looking forward to it going smoothly,” said Public Works Director Steven Jahnke.

The streetscape project is about $4.6 million project and was initiated out of a need to replace aging infrastructure.

It includes the replacement of the street, sidewalk and underground utilities on Broadway from Fountain Street to Main Street. Decorative lighting, crosswalks, kiosks, trees and tree grates will be added, along with basic pedestrian plazas at William and Water streets.

Fountain Lake Park at the north end of Broadway will undergo a reconstruction with the addition of a grand staircase leading from Fountain Street to a sidewalk promenade in the park, a wheelchair-accessible sidewalk and a new boat dock on the lake.

The Albert Lea City Council approved a contract for the project with BCM Construction of Faribault last month.

Jahnke said the North Broadway parking lot and the other public parking lots in the downtown area will remain open during the course of the project.

He said city staff and Bolton & Menk will work diligently to get construction updates out to people, and there will be weekly construction meetings open to the public at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays at the Freeborn National Bank building.