It’s real name is the 19th Avenue Combined City Project, but Sunset District residents and motorists will probably have other words for this water- and sewer-line overhaul slated to last until 2023.

Should you be a person who sometimes finds themselves driving themselves up and down 19th Avenue in the Sunset District, it is time to get to know your local side streets. The jackhammers, trucks, and terrific traffic delays will be descending on 19th Avenue for the next 27 months, according to the Examiner, as something the DPW is calling the 19th Avenue Combined City Project will reduce stretches of 19th Avenue from three-lane traffic to two.

19th Avenue will still remain open throughout the long affair, but for the next two months, you’ll probably want to avoid the six blocks of 19th Avenue between Golden Gate Park and Noriega Street. That’s just the first of many affected areas in the “extensive” overhaul of street and underground infrastructure, which the Examiner says includes “replacement of water and sewer mains, street base repairs, installation of new ADA-compliant curb ramps, construction of bulbs to shorten the walking distance required to cross the street, concrete bus pads, traffic signal improvements and sidewalk widening at bus stops.”

Crews actually started this week (though they have today off), but things get serious on Monday when they begin saw-cutting roadway on the southbound lanes on the block between Lincoln Way and Irving Street, expected to last until mid-November. The block between Judah and Kirkham Streets is up next (expected to be finished in early January), then Kirkham to Lawton Street for much of the rest of January. The project will keep removing a lane from a particular block for, well, years, hence the projected traffic nightmares.

Hoodline adds this is also part of Muni’s 28 19th Avenue Rapid Project that includes some sidewalk widening and bus stop consolidation that hopes to (eventually) make the 28-line bus experience smoother. They’ve already started changing locations on stops, and you can expect to see much more of that in the future.

19th Avenue is of course a part of California’s famed State Route 1, which means Caltrans has their hands in on this as well. They'll be repaving 19th Ave. all the way from the park to Holloway Avenue,  a stretch of a couple miles.

Related: Four Years Into Van Ness Bus Lane Project, Red Concrete Gets Poured for Lanes [SFist]

Image: Google Street View