As residents return from vacations and recover from holiday weekend ventures, city officials will begin preparing for a venture of their own — a major road closure.

Starting Wednesday, George Wallace Drive will remain closed for the next two weeks as the city works toward completing its sewer project.

Beginning Wednesday morning, traffic will be rerouted at the areas of George Wallace intersecting with Ray Avenue to Second Avenue, said Dennis Crigler, project superintendent with Imani Environmental Group.

During this project’s completion, Crigler said traffic headed northbound on George Wallace Drive will be detoured at Ray Street over to Franklin and then back up University Avenue to George Wallace Drive. Traffic headed southbound will be detoured at Pell Avenue to Park Street, then to Corman Avenue and back to George Wallace Drive.

Mike Davis, water and sewer superintendent for the city of Troy, said this project is part of a city-wide effort to increase sewage capacity.

“The sewer project’s increasing the capacity of the sewer lines going to the waste water treatment plants in order to allow more growth,” Davis said.

“We were at capacity with the 8-inch lines, and this is going to be 12-inch.”

Davis said this project will be breaking ground on the street in four different places to tie in existing sewer lines with new ones. Once the portion of the project on George Wallace is complete, Davis said the crew will put a temporary surface on top of the street.

“The patch won’t be too bumpy. It just won’t be pretty,” Davis said.

After the entire sewer project reaches completion, likely sometime in September, the crew will come back and put a temporary surface on the road, which will mean it will be closed again.