Cumming officials had hoped to begin repaving Market Place Boulevard on Monday, but the wet weather had other ideas.

The new plan is to start Thursday, weather permitting, and run construction through Saturday.

“If the rain hadn’t have come in, they’d have been done with it by this week,” said Gerald Blackburn, city administrator.

The repaving, which is being handled by contractor C.W. Matthews, will involve the stretch of Market Place from Buford Dam Road to Hwy. 20, or about two-thirds of a mile.

The projected cost is a little more than $300,000, with the state Department of Transportation paying for about half of it.

Blackburn said the goal is to have the well-traveled retail corridor repaved before heavy holiday shopping season begins Thanksgiving weekend.

In addition, Market Place serves as the route for the city’s annual Christmas Parade, which this year is set for Dec. 4.

Waiting to repave until the spring would have guaranteed less traffic congestion, Blackburn said, but “the way the roads are breaking up out there, it’s going to be a much tougher job and the expense of it is going to be greater.”

“That’s why we’re trying to get it done before the cold weather,” he said. “There’s going to be a lot of deterioration of the road if we have to wait until the weather warms up in spring.”

Once it starts, repaving will shut down lanes along the corridor, but Blackburn said at least one lane will be open in each direction.

“There’s not going to be a circumstance where traffic is blocked off. It will be impeded,” he said. “It’s going to be an inconvenience, but it’s not going to be a shutdown type of thing.

“We’re going to try real hard to get a three-day window, get it finished and get out of there, because we don’t want to have cones and traffic signals affected.”

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