M Street closed overnight at Bear Creek

M Street is closed overnight to all traffic from Rambler Road to Bear Creek Drive due to construction and a water line break.

The stretch of road had originally been scheduled to open at 7 p.m. tonight but the water line break caused the road to remain closed overnight. The section of M Street will remain closed Friday until 7 p.m.

The road will be open over the weekend.

'We apologize for any inconveniences to residents in Merced,' said Acting City Engineer Mike Beltran. 'We shut down the road because of safety issues in the area. There is large equipment moving around, and the contractor was having to cross lanes of traffic, causing temporary lane closures.'

The closure will resume Monday and Tuesday, April 29 and 30, from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., while the road is being paved.

Detours are in place routing traffic around the blocked section of road.

Beltran said the total closure will speed up the paving project. The original plan was to pave two lanes at a time.

'Once the paving is finished Tuesday, we will be able to open the road up for at least two lanes of traffic,' Beltran said. 'The contractor will have intermittent lane closures while the lanes are striped, they install traffic loops and do other work to finish the project.'

Beltran said the entire road project will be finished by mid-May.