Every day is different at the intersection of Purchase Street and Elm Place, as the City replaces sewer lines and completes long-planned street and infrastructure improvements, and the old Smoke Shop building, which has been renovated down to the studs, takes on new life.

The end result will be beautiful — and safer — but residents and neighboring business owners can’t wait for the “Road Closed” signs, the awkwardly placed Porta Potties, and the construction detritus to be distant memories.

Photos by Pedro Garcia and Tom McDermott