SOUTH PORTLAND–Construction workers won’t start their work each day until the worst of the morning rush hour is over, and will quit by 4 p.m., before the height of the evening commute.

Still, as the state this week began a major repaving job on Broadway between Anthoine and Lincoln streets, city officials urged motorists to take alternative routes, if possible. That’s because the two-month, 1.38-mile repaving project is on the city’s only east-west artery, and is expected to cause delays as traffic narrows to one lane during the workday.

“It is a busy road,” said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the $874,276 project on the state road.

He said more than 15,000 vehicles travel on Broadway each day.

However, it is because the road is used so much that it needs repaving. City Manager James Gailey said the city is glad the state has undertaken the project.

“We are very pleased that MDOT has finally put this back on their list to do,” he said in an e-mail communication. “The road is very heavily traveled and is in dire need of a new surface. A short time of inconvenience will yield us a new road that will last for another 10 to 15 years.”

The project began this week with some preliminary site work, and the contract calls for the job to be finished by July 17, Latti said.

He said the low bidder on the contract was Shaw Brothers Construction Inc. of Gorham. He said last week that he did not yet have a specific date for actual construction to begin, but said it should start around June 1.

Latti said the project will involve grinding off the old pavement all the way from Lincoln Street to Anthoine Street and putting down new asphalt.

Gailey said the state had offered to do the work at night, but the city opted for daytime work.

“We said no due to the impact it would have on abutting residential homes,” Gailey said. “It will be loud.”

He cautioned that there “will be some delays” but said that the city is working with the contractor “to make them painless to some extent.”

Still, Gailey said, “with the amount of work and length of work zone, it will be a difficult time working and keeping traffic flowing … It is best for people to find alternative routes around this area if they can.”

Latti said that all work will be done during the day between the hours of 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.

Robert Hough, the state project manager for the repaving job, said the contractor is allowed to have one-way alternating traffic regulated by flaggers during those hours.

Two-way traffic must be maintained at other times, Hough said.

The traffic pattern will be similar to the one the city used when it did a sewer/stormwater separation project on Broadway a few years ago, Gailey said.

The state also is expected to begin construction on a new $63 million replacement for the Veterans Memorial Bridge in June. The bridge runs between Portland and South Portland, and many vehicles use Lincoln Street to access the bridge from South Portland.

However, the Veterans Bridge project is not expected to impact traffic because the existing bridge will remain open to vehicles as the new one is built alongside it, Latti said.