UMATILLA — After years of planning, Umatilla’s main thoroughfare is finally getting an upgrade.

The Oregon Department of Transportation has started work on an overhaul of Sixth Street, from Yerxa Avenue next to Columbia Harvest Foods down to the bridge over the Umatilla River. The project will include reconstructing the road to better withstand the heavy truck traffic along Highway 730 that it sees each day.

City Manager David Stockdale said the project will bring the street, sidewalks, curbs and crossings up to accessibility standards in the Americans with Disabilities Act. There will also be decorative touches, such as stamped concrete that looks like red brick, new landscaping, and new lampposts with arms that can hold banners or hanging flower baskets watered automatically with a built-in irrigation system.

At intersections, sidewalks will “bulb out” to the point where parking spaces end and the lane of travel begins, creating a visual cue for drivers to remember they’re going through a town and to slow down.

“As a driver, it makes it far easier to see pedestrians,” Stockdale said.

Sixth Street isn’t closed completely during the project, Stockdale said. Traffic is just being rerouted to the center lanes. Businesses can stay open, and customers can still access their parking lots or park on side streets.

The project is set to be completed on Oct. 31. Stockdale said that timeline included an extra two weeks built in for contingency, but that two weeks has been “gobbled up” by some delays in the supply chain caused by COVID-19.

Since Sixth Street is part of Highway 730, and therefore under the jurisdiction of ODOT, the state is paying for 88% of the $6 million project, Stockdale said.