Beginning around mid-September motorists in Fountain Hills will start dodging a year or more of major road construction.

On Aug. 7 the Town Council approved a bid from Nesbitt Contracting for construction work on Shea Boulevard in a general area between the Beeline Highway and Target center.

Development Services Director Paul Mood said the Shea project will likely commence sometime the week of Sept. 15.

The town received five bids for the work, all falling between $3,218,591 and $3,336,306.

Bidders included Nesbitt Contracting, Visus, Inc., Markham Contracting, Blucor Contracting and Low Mountain Construction, all of which have done work for the town before.

Low Mountain is currently working on the Avenue median project.

Nesbitt, which did the mill and overlay work on Shea west of Palisades in 2013, submitted the low bid and the council accepted it as a responsible bid.

The town has $4.3 million budgeted for the work in its capital projects plan for this fiscal year.

The scope of the project is to widen Shea Boulevard to three lanes in each direction between SR 87 (Beeline Highway) and Technology Drive at the west end of the Target shopping center.

The work will also include drainage structures, a new signal at Saguaro Boulevard and pavement replacement on Saguaro to a location just north of Trevino Drive.

With the bid under budget it will allow the town to use the more durable and quieter rubberized asphalt for the paving, Mood said.

The project is being funded with 70 percent from a Maricopa Association of Governments grant from Prop 400 transportation excise tax funds.

The additional 30 percent is being funded from the town Capital Improvement Fund and street development fees.

The work has a 270-day schedule, according to Mood, which would bring completion sometime in May of 2015. That construction schedule overlaps with the planned Saguaro Boulevard reconstruction, so there will be a period of time when the projects are ongoing simultaneously.

Mood said that when the Saguaro bid is awarded they will discuss with the contractor the possibility of starting that project at Palisades and initially working north. He said that would avoid any direct conflict with the Shea improvements.

The council also approved a related construction management agreement with HDR Construction Control Corp. for management services on the Shea project.

That agreement is for $411,878, and provides for a full-time inspector and half-time resident engineer along with associated clerical staff during the project.