An excavator tore up asphalt on part of West Lyon Street in Marshall on Wednesday, in the next phase of ongoing street and utility reconstruction downtown. Lyon Street will be closed between East College Drive and the middle of the block between Third and Fourth Street.

MARSHALL — Excavation work started Wednesday for the next phase of the street and utility project going on in part of Marshall’s downtown. The city of Marshall said starting Aug. 2, a portion of West Lyon Street will be closed between East College Drive and the middle of the block between Third Street and Fourth Street.

While pedestrian routes and a public parking lot will remain open on Lyon Street during construction, the city said access to the parking lot will only be available from the alley.

On Wednesday morning, an excavator started breaking up and removing the asphalt from West Lyon Street between East College Drive and Third Street. The digging is in preparation for street and utility replacements on parts of West Lyon Street. Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson said underground work, which includes installing new water, sanitary and storm sewer lines, will begin today.

“The underground work and the street building work will take roughly two weeks to complete. Following this work, we expect the concrete contractor to come in and begin installing concrete,” Anderson said Wednesday. However, he said it’s hard to say how long the concrete installation could take.

Construction recently wrapped up on the first phase of the downtown project, which affected one block of North Third Street. In addition to new utilities and a new street surface, sidewalks were widened to create more of a pedestrian space on the downtown block of Third Street.

In an announcement Tuesday, the city of Marshall said the Addison parking lot, located across Lyon Street from the Marshall 6 movie theater, will remain open to the public during construction. However, drivers will only be able to enter or exit the parking lot from the alleyway. The alley will be one-way only, starting from Third Street and traveling toward East College Drive.

At the same time, some parking will be available on North Third Street, the city said. North Third Street will be open from Main Street to the alleys on either side of the roadway.