Paving along North Main Street was a welcome sight to many on Monday, as it heralded the arrival of the final phase of road work associated with the Meridian Obici apartments.

One section of paving, from Northgate Lane to Murphy’s Mill Road, was completed last week, said project manager Ryan Hurt with the city of Suffolk.

“The rest of it will be done hopefully by this Friday,” he said.

Workers were out in force Monday on both sides of the road, milling up old pavement. Hurt said that work will continue Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, the new pavement will be laid down.

The temperature might be too low on Friday to lay pavement — it has to be 42 degrees and rising — but the goal is not to need Friday.

“Friday is going to be close, but if everything goes well we won’t have anything but maybe a turn lane on Friday,” Hurt said.

Once the paving is complete, the only large job remaining to be done is to activate the new signal, said Sherry Earley of the city’s Public Works Department.

“There is the possibility through next week that there might be some minor work going on,” Earley said. “It may be a little bit longer on getting that signal activated.”

Earley said there will be notice of the pending activation of the signal ahead of time. Already, the signal is in a flashing mode to prepare motorists for the transition.

In mid-December, Earley predicted the work, which had already lasted for several weeks, would last about another month, depending on weather. That was before about eight inches of snow fell in the first week of January, followed by several days of bitter cold.

The work that has been completed includes the new traffic signal, crosswalks, turn lanes, a raised median with landscaping, curb and gutter and a storm drain.