Find an interactive map of Public Square with detour routes HERE.

CLEVELAND, Ohio - It's happening. Contractors will begin work Monday, March 9, on a sweeping, $32 million renovation of Public Square, the historic center and symbolic heart of the city.

The city and the nonprofit Downtown Cleveland Alliance released a brief announcement Monday afternoon indicating that traffic would be blocked from the 10-acre crossroads and civic space in one week.

The announcement stated that "during the renovation of Public Square, Ontario Street and Superior Avenue within the square will be closed to all traffic. The surrounding Public Square Roadways and Rockwell Avenue will offer access to bus traffic and local vehicular traffic only."

The announcement also stated that during construction - which is scheduled for completion in time for the Republican National Convention in 2016 -- the following changes would remain in effect:

Only RTA and necessary property access would be available around Public Square (including valet, garage access, etc.).

Bus stops, shelters and bus layover areas have been reorganized to accommodate full Public Square closure.

All bus routes and transfers will remain within one block of Public Square.

The HealthLine stop across from Tower City will remain open.

Edward W. Rybka, the city's chief of regional development said in the statement that, "the City of Cleveland has participated in an in-depth traffic analysis and worked with multiple partner agencies to produce this maintenance of traffic plan, which will go into effect on March 9 and last for the duration of the project,"

He also said: "we recognize there will be an initial learning curve; however we believe that this traffic plan will have the smallest impact on our commuters."

Detailed information about the project and its immediate impact are available on the website of the nonprofit Downtown Cleveland Alliance. Project information can also be found at the bottom of this post.

The brief announcement left questions unanswered, such as whether Cuyahoga County has agreed to issue bonds backed by tax increment financing on the non-school portion of increased real estate taxes from improvements made to the Higbee Building for the Horseshoe Casino. The city approved the tax increment financing last year.

It's also unclear whether a ceremonial groundbreaking would be scheduled.

The statement said a full Public Square project briefing "is anticipated to be held on Friday." No other details were announced.

To date, the Group Plan Commission, assigned by the city and county to manage the project, has announced raising $19 million in cash and pledges for Public Square from donors including the Cleveland and Gund foundations and the KeyBank Foundation.

Jeremy Paris, the commission's director, has said in interviews before Monday's announcement that the project expects to realize $6 million to $9 million from tax increment bonds. It's unclear whether the bonds would be issued by Cuyahoga County, which has considered such a role but hasn't committed.

The city of Cleveland has kicked in $5.1 million for relocation of underground utilities, an amount over and above the basic $32 million project cost.

Negotiations were also under way recently to see whether private utilities including Dominion East Ohio, FirstEnergy and AT&T, whose power, gas, electric and telecommunication lines crisscross the square below grade, would agree to help the project.

Designed by the nationally admired New York landscape architect James Corner, co-designer of that city's acclaimed High Line Park, the Public Square remake will remove the two blocks of Ontario Street that run north-south through the space.

Upon completion of the project, Superior Avenue will remain open to bus traffic, and other vehicles will be routed counterclockwise around the square.

Traffic studies by the San Francisco consulting firm of Nelson Nygaard, still underway, are designed to show how vehicular traffic will be affected -- and can be adjusted -- at more than 30 downtown intersections in blocks around the square.

Two large, rectangular, park-like spaces will be created north and south of Superior Avenue, with an "event lawn" and corner gardens on the north side, and an outdoor cafe, programmable splash zone, speaker's terrace and fresh landscaping around the 1894 Soldiers and Sailors Monument on the south side.

A butterfly-shaped perimeter path will join the north and south halves of the square, visually and physically unifying it with a special raised paving area that will cross Superior Avenue and send a subtle signal to vehicles to travel with care.

Corner envisions a more robust role for the square in the civic life of the city as a focal point for picnics, concerts, entertainment and play.

The construction involves ecologically friendly elements designed to increase green space and to soak up and store rainwater to prevent sudden surges that could cause sewage overflows in Lake Erie.

The start of construction has been awaited for months. The Group Plan Commission anticipated starting the project in November or December, and then February, while pushing the groundbreaking back several times.

Anthony Coyne, chairman of the Group Plan Commission, said in December that because the organization had expected to start construction in the square before Christmas, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance moved its annual post-Thanksgiving Winterfest Celebration -- traditionally including a Christmas tree lighting in Public Square -- to Playhouse Square.

In preparation for construction, the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority began on Sunday to reroute buses that make thousands of stops a day in the square, a transportation nerve center where bus lines converge near the Tower City Center hub for rapid transit rail lines.

Public Square was originally laid out in 1796 by city founder Moses Cleaveland and surveyors from the Connecticut Land Co.

Scholars say the plans specified that Ontario Street and Superior Avenue would crisscross the square, a configuration that remained in place until 1857-67, when the city closed the streets to create a central park.

The celebrated "Fence War" culminated in the reopening of the streets to traffic. Revised numerous times throughout the decades, the square was last renovated in the mid-1980s.

The square has played a key role in the history and psyche of the city as a setting for parades, holiday celebrations, orchestra concerts, political demonstrations and charity events.

In recent years, the main activity in the square on most days has consisted of transit users waiting for buses.

At the behest of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Corner submitted three plans for public consideration in late 2009.

One called for bridging the square with an elevated and landscaped pedestrian crossroads built over the intersection of Ontario Street and Superior Avenue.

Another called for framing the square with an elaborate lattice on which greenery would grow, and the third proposed removing Ontario Street and filling the two remaining rectangular spaces with trees symbolizing the "Forest City."

A variation on that plan became the eventual option, but only after the city agreed with the findings of a Nelson Nygaard traffic analysis in 2012 that showed that Ontario Street could be closed without causing traffic mayhem.

The project then became a centerpiece of Mayor Frank Jackson's vision for physical renewal of the heart of the city as a way to encourage a boom in residential development that has caused a surge in the downtown population that echoes similar shifts in many other American cities.

The square's renovation is also part of a widespread movement among American cities large and small that have enhanced parks and streetscapes in an effort to boost development and attract new residents.

"As Downtown continues to grow as a destination to live, work and play, improvements are being made to our infrastructure, streets and public spaces," Joe Marinucci, president and CEO of the Downtown Cleveland Alliance, said in the joint announcement.

"These projects will continue the momentum we are currently experiencing and create a sustainable foundation for the future of Downtown Cleveland. We're excited to see this momentum take physical shape in the renovation of Public Square."