Another big step in building the new Main Street Bridge in Niles is expected to take place at the beginning of next month.

Chris Jacobs, project engineer for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT), said Wednesday that the beams would be delivered and set across portions of the bridge Sept. 1.

“That’s a pretty firm date. Something catastrophic would have to go wrong not to make that date,” he said.

The approximately 120-foot long beams will be delivered by semi and immediately placed horizontally over the appropriate abutment and piers.

Jacobs said they are still trying to determine on what side of the bridge the beams will be delivered. He said they would likely be delivered on the west side with the trucks coming down Niles Buchanan Road, although nothing was set in stone as of Wednesday afternoon.

Work on the $10.6 million MDOT project to replace the 90-year-old Main Street Bridge began in October.

MDOT officials originally set an open-to-traffic date for mid November of this year. Jacobs said they are still about two to three weeks behind schedule, but are making steady progress.

“We are looking still at opening to traffic either the last week of November or first week of December,” he said.

Over the next two weeks, Jacobs said people can expect to see workers focusing their attention on pouring the concrete footing and wall for the abutment on the west side of the river.

It may be difficult to see it happening, he said, because workers will be inside the water-tight cofferdam, which is made up of large sheet pilings driven into the soil by a diesel hammer.

Jacobs said workers finished driving the pilings last week.

Workers also finished building the wing wall on the finished abutment on the east side of the river. The wing wall serves as a retention system for the bridge.