Beginning Tuesday morning, crews should be grinding away the top layer of cracked, crumbling and otherwise troublesome pavement along East 23rd Street at the edge of Lawrence.

The work is to make way for a new, smooth surface sure to comfort drivers — and their vehicles’ suspensions — in the years ahead.

That’s if everyone can survive the frustration first.

“We understand that our maintenance projects create an inconvenience to the business owners and property owner and drivers, but it’s a necessary thing to maintain safe streets that have a good ride,” said Mark Thiel, assistant director of public works for the city of Lawrence.

For the next four weeks, drivers should expect a rough ride as contract crews embark on a repaving project along 23rd, from 1,000 feet west of Haskell Avenue to the eastern edge of Lawrence, or where Kansas Highway 10 turns into a divided highway.

Bettis Asphalt, of Topeka, is general contractor for the $570,420 job, a project being financed by the city with $200,000 contributed from the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Once the daytime preparation work is complete, crews will shift to overnight work to lay down a fresh coat of pavement — that’s 3,965 tons of asphalt, spread to be 2 inches thick — and installation of proper lane markings, Thiel said. The project also will include patching areas of damaged concrete along Haskell, just south of the intersection with 23rd.

Throughout the process, Thiel said, traffic will be able to travel through the area on 23rd, although drivers should expect delays and access to some properties could be compromised temporarily.

The road typically carries more than 31,000 vehicles per day, Thiel said.

“We, as always, try to minimize the inconvenience, and on this project we’ll do that by doing some of our operations at night and maintaining traffic in both directions during construction,” Thiel said.