River Avenue congestion will continue into July, causing Buckley motorists to continue their detour around a busy construction site.

Work began the first week of April in the vicinity of the Buckley Youth Center, when the project’s general contractor – Reed Trucking and Excavation of Puyallup – started tearing up busy River Avenue and a side street.

When the project is completed in mid-July, the roadway will be widened to include angle parking, along with curbs, gutters, sidewalks and lighting. Improvements to the city stormwater collection system are underground.

In all, the project entails about 1,000 feet of road surface.

While normal traffic is being detoured around the construction site, things like mail delivery and garbage service have not been disrupted.

The city project carries a total price tag of a bit more than $1.3 million, including all the engineering and design work. Financing was helped by a state Transportation Improvement Board grant of $552,000 and a payment of almost $129,000 from Puget Sound Energy.