The fourth phase of Main Street’s Streetscape improvement project is upcoming, but officials say construction won’t be as disruptive as past work.

“This will continue to make the Main Street corridor more attractive, which will hopefully attract new businesses and improve the situation for existing businesses,” said Peter Sanborn, acting director of the town's Community of Economic Development Authority (CEDA).

CEDA will accept contracting bids for the estimated $500,000 project, which will be done between Sawyer and Chapel streets, beginning on Aug. 17.

Shovels hit the ground five years ago for the first phase of the Village Streetscape Design Project. The project, which is funded completely by federal/state Community Development Block Grants, paid for road paving, benches, sidewalks, crosswalks, light poles and the installation of “bump-outs,” which are areas of sidewalk that extend into the street in an effort to make pedestrians entering vehicles and crossing the street more visible to drivers.

The upcoming phase won’t be as extensive as previous ones have been, Sanborn noted.

“Because of the specific location of this work, the area starts to transition from mostly business to mostly residential, it will be a simpler treatment than in the heart of the business district,” he said.

New sidewalks, crosswalks, light poles and wheelchair ramps will be installed. Bump-out curbing is not planned.

The street will be repaved, necessitating a day or two of detours for drivers, said Sanborn. Other than that, the roads will remain open during construction.

“We don’t anticipate a major inconvenience,” said Sanborn.

He estimated that once the bids are accepted, construction will begin in late September or early October. Weather permitting, the project will be finished by the end of the year, he said.

Looking ahead, Sanborn said there have been preliminary talks about extending the Main Street improvements even further.

“We hope to eventually go all the way to Elm Street,” he said.

The town learned it received $825,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding earlier this year. In addition to the $500,000 earmarked for phase four of the Streetscape, the grant will fund the town’s long-running Housing Rehabilitation Program, provide programming dollars for five Wareham nonprofits, pay for design costs for the potential fifth phase of Main Street improvements, and fund a survey of Onset Village that, depending on results of the survey, could open doors for the town to use future Community Development Block Grant funding there.