NEW PORT RICHEY - There won't be a caboose or even a train depot involved, but the city's long-awaited Railroad Square beautification project is finally back on track.

After years of planning and false starts, New Port Richey officials are preparing to solicit construction bids for the 1930s-era, railroad-themed downtown thoroughfare project.

Two weeks ago, the city's Community Redevelopment Agency signed off on engineering plans from its consulting company, URS Corp., which is preparing the bid packages.

For financial reasons, the project is divided into four phases: The first two will focus on converting Nebraska Avenue from Grand Boulevard to Adams Street, the other two on Missouri Avenue from Grand to Adams, and on Nebraska from Adams to Madison Street.

The price tag for the first phase is about $400,000; the entire project is expected to cost about $4.5 million.

"It's a really good start," City Councilman Bob Consalvo said. "We don't have a lot of money to devote to this project right now, so we're trying to make the most of what we have."

The project, years in the making, will add trees, antique street lighting, new sidewalks and even replica crossing guards to create a more pedestrian-friendly downtown.

Unlike previous proposals, the blueprint calls for gradually transforming the commercial hub, and it does not establish a time frame for finishing the project.

Three years ago, the council put aside $1 million for Railroad Square, one of several capital improvement projects aimed at revitalizing the sleepy commercial district.

But cost estimates for the project have risen substantially.

In March 2006, the redevelopment agency rejected several proposals from the engineering firm. They included converting Nebraska to a one-way street with parallel parking, estimated at $2.4 million; changing it to a one-way street with angled parking, about $2.4 million; or leaving it a two-way street with parallel parking for $2.1 million.

So city officials instead decided to spread the project's cost over several years to offset the impact on the CRA fund, which collects city and county taxes for redevelopment.

Deputy Mayor Ginny Miller said she would rather see a long-term beautification project that could be built on and modified over time instead of scrapping the idea completely.

She compares the Railroad Square project to the James E. Grey Preserve, an 80-acre nature park that reopened last weekend after more than a decade of phased additions.

"That took a long time also, but the results were clearly worth the wait," Miller said.

New Port Richey was the end of the line for the so-called "tug and grunt" locomotives that rolled into this west Pasco County city backward from a Tarpon Springs depot.

The last train left Nebraska Avenue more than 60 years ago, marking the end of an era for steam engines that brought frontiersmen and supplies to develop this coastal municipality.

Straddling the northeast corner of Grand Boulevard and Nebraska Avenue, the wood-stilted depot was built in 1913 by the Tampa and Gulf Coast Railway Co. In 1927, the depot was leased to Seaboard Airline Railway, which kept the trains running until 1943, when the tracks were pulled up and daily service discontinued.

City leaders hope Railroad Square will bring more pedestrians downtown, where merchants complain that too many people drive by without getting out to spend money.

Mayor Dan Tipton said he knows that some residents have questioned the expenditure at a time when local governments across the state are being compelled to spend less.

But he thinks it will benefit the city in the long-run.

"It's a good investment for the downtown," Tipton said, "something we can build on."

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.