If you live in Newton Falls or plan to visit the village you need to know about a traffic detour that begins on Monday. It's part of a two-phase road improvement project.

The $1.3 million improvement begins with the closing of the East Branch bridge on Broad Street. City leaders say a simple detour will only take an extra four or five minutes.

"While the covered bridge and the bridge on the East Branch are closed, people can go north over to the Main Street Bridge and get across town that way. So it's a relatively minor detour," said City Manager David Lynch.

The historic covered bridge is being closed to avoid excess traffic over the wooden structure during the project. It will be open to pedestrian traffic only.  Signs also will direct traffic on the Main Street Bridge detour to the downtown.

 While the bridge is closed, the village is taking extra steps for police, fire and ambulance service.

"We've got emergency fire and ambulance stations on both sides of the bridge so that if there are any difficulties, we don't even have to take the detour we've already got emergency personnel stationed on both sides of the bridge," Lynch said.

Once the bridge replacement is completed in September, phase two of the project will resurface Route 534 through the center of town, but even then Ohio Department of Transportation said Route 534 would remain open with single lane traffic.

The resurfacing is scheduled for completion in November.