COMPTON — Heading down the city’s major thoroughfares — Compton Boulevard and Willowbrook Avenue — orange cones, caution and detour signs, barricaded sidewalks and heavy traffic may have some residents and passersby wondering what kind of transformation will result.

According to Alan Pyeatt, acting Public Works Director and City Engineer, the city is downsizing the Martin Luther King Jr. Transit Center to 10,000 square feet in an attempt to make way for a bustling North Downtown area.

“We are reconfiguring that site because one of the things that we are doing is we are making room for future developments in the area,” he said. “The city has a North Downtown Specific Plan and that’s a plan to redevelop the whole entire Downtown area.”

The center, when completed fall 2010, will house the Regional Traffic Management and Operations Center, Renaissance Bus Transit System, Dial-a-Ride Service, Dial-a-Taxi Service, Park and Ride, and bus layover facilities.

Prior to being demolished there were a few retail stores, a sandwich shop and a small hair salon, as were there a couple of city offices. They have since relocated and future plans do not suggest that they will occupy the space in the future.

The year-long project — which began in May, said Pyeatt, and is expected to end in September or October 2010 — will also have other initiatives attached to it. In order to make connectivity better, the city will alter some of its streets.

In June, said an official notice, Carson Place was closed in order to realign Bernice Dredd Street, formerly East Palmer Street. And currently, the eastside of Willowbrook Avenue from Compton Boulevard to Elm Street is temporarily closed. The latter will be such until fall 2010 due to unforeseen site conditions that were uncovered, causing additional work.

“We have closed part of Willowbrook Avenue in front of the Transit Center and we’re installing a cul-de-sac at the north end of this project site and on the south end, instead of a T-Section at Palmer Street, it’s just a right turn onto Palmer,” said Pyeatt. “What that does is open up the whole area for a plaza area and helps to increase the connectivity between the Transit Center and the Blue Line Metro Rail Station.”

“We have a temporary routing plan for bus service, not only ours but MTA’s,” he added. “We’ve also relocated a couple of bus stations, we have installed some signage, we have required the contractor to provide and maintain some secure walkway for pedestrians and a temporary parking area so that people can still use the facilities. There are also temporary facilities for the Greyhound bus station and the bus service itself.”

Currently, buses both from the MTA and the city’s Renaissance bus transit system are operating at the north end of the construction site. Construction is taking place on the south end. Once that construction is complete, the buses will begin to operate from their permanent location on the south.

Downey-based MEPCO Services, the second lowest bidder, was awarded a $10.6 million contract in May of this year to conduct the services. An additional $200,000 was allocated to CMTS Inc. for project management services.

Funding for this particular project has and will come from a variety of sources, including but not limited to the MTA, Prop. C, Prop. 42, Prop A and Community Development Block Grants.

As part of a larger plan, next to the Transit Center, “we are building a [four-story] parking structure and next to that we will be building the senior center,” said Kofi Sefa-Boakye, Director of Redevelopment. “We are trying to make use of space in the area. And so the entire thing is going to consist of the Transit Center, parking structure, senior center, [affordable senior housing] and also a community center.”

The parking structure is next for development. And though there are several city projects on the board, Pyeatt said there will be a host of private establishments entering the area, similar to restaurants and retail stores located at the Gateway Towne Center.

The north Downtown area will be bordered by Alameda Street to the east, Compton Boulevard to the south, Rosecrans Avenue to the north and Willowbrook Avenue to the west.

Last week, the city council approved a $2.8 million loan which will be used to resurface Downtown’s Compton Renaissance Plaza Shopping Center, change the color scheme of the buildings and implement a new landscape design. The once occupied K-Mart will be leased to Burlington Coat Factory after the renovation.

But in order for the multi-year, $60 million undertaking — which will be financed through public and private sources — to be successful, said Sefa-Boakye, people have to get out of their cars. To make this happen, “we are also going to have streetscape,” he said. “We want people to use mass transit, we also want people to walk. We want to transform the city, more importantly Downtown. It will be a walkable, pedestrian-[friendly], special environment. So we are going to bring pedestrians and people walking to stalls within the area instead of relying more on … cars.”