The $1.2 million makeover of the Mechanics and Clement streets corridor is scheduled to start next month, but borough officials are promising it won't be like the year-long headache of the Tanner Street reconstruction.

Officials say the work should be completed within three months.

"This project was designed before the Tanner Street project was designed," Borough Administrator Sharon McCullough said. "Part of the emphasis for this grant is to tie the historical transportation items of the community into the streetscape. There was a very significant blacksmith shop on the street at one time, and a trolley once went down Tanner Street."

Borough commissioners awarded the project to Asphalt Paving Systems of Hammonton this month. Seventy-five percent of the project, or about $850,000, is being paid for with federal stimulus money that was delayed at the state level for several years, McCullough said. An addition $300,000 is coming from the borough utility tax for sewer improvements.

The project will enhance the streetscape along the narrow, block-long streets near the Kings Highway and tie in a historic transportation theme. Brick walkways will match the pattern from Kings Court, extend across Kings Highway and down both Mechanics and Clement streets. The corridor will be further enhanced with a small park at the intersection of Mechanics, Clement and Haddon Avenue, and with a street pattern at the intersection of Tanner and Clement streets.

There will also be an upgrade of sewer and drain lines under Mechanic and Clement streets.