High Point Market District streetscape project stays on schedule

High Point’s Market District streetscape project was about 75% to 80% complete and remained on schedule July 7, even as South Main Street detours continued to cut through the heart of the city’s showroom corridor. For merchants along the block, the timeline matters as much as the paving: the work is meant to clear the way for better customer access, stronger parking flow and a streetscape that looks and functions differently by fall.

City Engineering Services Director Trevor Spencer said the project is doing more than resurfacing a street. The work includes new sidewalks, curb and gutter, decorative crosswalks, mast arm signal poles, asphalt resurfacing and a new underground utility duct bank. Spencer said the underground work is intended to improve pedestrian access while modernizing water, sewer and stormwater lines running through the roadway.

The construction zone covers South Main Street from Russell Avenue to Grimes Avenue and Russell Avenue from Elm Street to South Main Street. The city’s original notice said access to local businesses would be maintained during construction, with alternate entrances from Elm Street and Wrenn Avenue encouraged when possible. That access plan has become important during the summer shopping season, when delivery vehicles, customer parking and foot traffic all compete for space in the district.

Crews began work Nov. 1, 2025, after the fall High Point Market, then opened the street again for the spring market from April 11 to May 5 before closing it back down May 6. The city now expects the street to remain closed until Oct. 2. Officials have said the closure lets crews move faster than they could if they had to work around daily traffic, compressing months of disruption into a narrower construction window.

The city’s bid documents show the scale of the utility and pavement work beneath the surface: about 4,000 linear feet of water line, 3,500 linear feet of sewer line, 2,200 linear feet of duct bank, 4,500 tons of asphalt, 2,200 square yards of 6-inch concrete sidewalk, 1,000 square yards of 6-inch concrete driveway and 4,500 linear feet of curb and gutter. Breece Enterprises was listed as the apparent contractor with a base bid of $9,496,575 and a base-and-alternate total of $13,273,780.

The project sits inside a broader Market District Infrastructure Project backed by the State of North Carolina, the City of High Point, the High Point Market Authority and private showroom investment. A 2023 report said the Market Authority was slated to receive a one-time $9 million state investment for infrastructure and beautification in the 13-block district, part of a market that draws about 75,000 U.S. and international visitors each spring and fall and produces about $6.7 billion in annual state and local economic impact.