MIDDLEPORT — The patching and paving of Middleport streets damaged in the process of the $7.5 million sewer line replacement project will begin next week.

Middleport Mayor Michael Gerlach said that Monday the process of getting the streets back in order will begin but that with it will come some change in the flow of traffic in the village.

Since North Second through the business section is the most traveled, the work will begin there on Monday. In the section between Rutland and Mill Streets the temporary patch in the sewer line trench will be removed and the base cement will be poured. The work will require both lanes to be closed so it will be done in the evening, Gerlach said.

On Thursday, according to the schedule, both lanes of that same section of North Second Street will be ground to take care of rough places. That work will be done during the daytime. The lanes will be done separately, however, so one lane will always be open around the work site. The grinding material being removed will be used to improve the road in Riverview Cemetery.

On Friday of next week, both lanes of the same section of North Second will be paved. That work, Gerlach said, will be done during the day but again only one lane at a time will be closed.

The mayor stressed that semi-trucks or other heavy vehicles will not be allowed on the new paving for one week while it sets up. Businesses needing deliveries, he said, should route their trucks to avoid that section of North Second during that time.

The weather could change the schedule somewhat, he added.

The only street to have full repaving will be North Second. On the other streets everything will be smoothed out, holes will be filled, bumps ground down, and gravel removed, and then those sections will be repaved.

The patching and paving project is the final step in the village’s project to comply with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) requirement to separate the village’s sanitary sewer and storm sewer, and reduce the number of overflows into the Ohio River. That mandate came down several years ago but funding became available only last year.

Groundbreaking for the project, fully funded by the EPA through a loan forgiveness program, and other grants awarded to the village, took place on Monday, Oct. 24, 2011. The general contractor on the project is Mike Enyart and Sons, Inc. The entire project is now in the finishing-up stage.