AUBURN – Concerns about traffic speed along Main Street downtown will delay a state repaving project until next spring.

City and state officials should present new drawings for the proposed project at a public hearing later this month.

Eric Labelle, Auburn’s community services director, said the latest designs will narrow Main Street, hopefully slowing down traffic. Plans still call for stopping traffic southbound at the Mechanics Row intersection. That will let Mechanics Row traffic continue south and onto Main Street without stopping or yielding to oncoming cars.

“But the plan is now to slow down traffic by making the road narrower,” Labelle said. The new plans cut Main Street from 45 feet wide and at least three lanes to 38 feet and two lanes.

“There will be a wider arcade there for pedestrians, plus trees and landscaping,” Labelle said. “They are trying to make this segment better for people walking around.”

Work on the project was scheduled to begin earlier this month. The project calls for removing Main Street’s old pavement between Court and Academy streets, resurfacing the road and putting down new sidewalks.

But neighbors and downtown merchants were worried that letting traffic continue from Mechanics Row to Main Street without stopping or yielding would make the area more dangerous.

Labelle said the latest designs should answer those concerns.

“The part of the road will be significantly narrow to discourage too much traffic,” Labelle said. “Plus they are putting in other amenities to make it calmer.”

The project should go out for bid over the winter, with work beginning early in the spring of 2008.