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Finish line in sight for Shady Cove Saturday Apr 28, 2018 at 4:40 PM Apr 28, 2018 at 4:40 PM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune SHADY COVE — The final phase of a $2.7 million overhaul to a mile-plus section of Highway 62 through Shady Cove will begin Sunday night and continue for up to three days, with striping and signage slated for just before Memorial Day. Transportation officials acknowledge business owners and residents are construction-weary but say the project was desperately needed and was timed to be finished before the summer tourist season. The project was largely focused on building curbs, gutters, sidewalks and storm drains, and ODOT spokesman Gary Leaming said final paving would “tie it all together.” The enhancement project, which began just after Labor Day last year, included the area from the Rogue River bridge to Cleveland Street to provide an updated look, improved safety and traffic flow. Leaming said transportation officials and contractors were mindful of the town’s reliance on tourism dollars while planning the project and that the contractor, White City-based HGC, had gone above and beyond to mitigate detours and inconveniences for motorists. “It’s been a fairly mild winter with not a lot of weather, so we’ve been able to make good progress,” Leaming said. “The community is pretty weary of the construction, there is no doubt, but we really are down to the final 100 yards of this race. Paving is about to start, then striping, and we’ll cross the finish line with doing the storm drains, and we’ll be out of there by Memorial Day, which is exactly like we planned.” Windemere Realtor Jinny Pardee said the project delivers a much-needed facelift for the town and would bring long-term benefit for businesses. “It’s just a beautification enhancement project that should really help out Shady Cove. We’re kind of more of a town that people travel through, and we’re hoping, with all this beautification, people will stop and enjoy all the wonderful things we have to offer,” Pardee said. “People are going to be able to walk down the sidewalks now and enjoy our shops. I know a lot of the merchants were very apprehensive about it, but I think once it’s all said and done everybody will be very pleased with it. I know there was some revenue that was lost during the construction, but I can’t help but feel that ... is going to help the revenue come back double fold at the very least.” City Administrator Aaron Prunty commended transportation officials for a job well done. “The fact they worked through winter, so not to impact our summer tourist season any more than necessary, was a really big benefit to our community,” Prunty said. “We’re really excited to see it all done. It’s definitely been an inconvenience, but the inconveniences have been minimized or mitigated. This is a project that’s been a long time coming, and we’ve been really pleased with how well ODOT and the contractor have managed everything. Although it’s not quite done, we’re real close, and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”