A heavily traveled street in Elmira will soon be getting a facelift. City lawmakers are continuing to keep their eyes on East Church Street, which has deteriorated over the years. Our Katie Husband has more on where the project stands and what drivers can expect.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

ELMIRA, N.Y. -- The work will be done between Madison Avenue and Clemens Center Parkway and it's expected to begin this coming spring.

The rehabilitation project will improve curbs, sidewalks, curb bump-outs and corners to make it safer for pedestrians. The city will also take the original road down to the concrete pavement and lay down new blacktop.

The idea behind the rehabilitation project is from a safety assessment of the whole corridor completed last December.

"Pinpointed some things we wanted to correct and we were fortunate enough to get federal aid to take care of some of these things. You don't wait until the pavement is down to potholes and dirt before you rehabilitate it, you want to take steps before that or else you'll never be able to afford to maintain your system," said Andy Avery, Elmira Department Public Works, director.

Avery says Church Street is one of the gateway roads into the city that takes you through the business and historic areas and everybody uses it from tractor trailers, school buses to the everyday traveler.

The project is expected to be completed by the end of next summer.

It's a $1.6 million project, but 80 percent is paid by the federal government and 15 percent by the state. Elmira will only pay just over $234,000.