The state’s Department of Transportation has announced it will close the southern half of Dike Road between May 9 and roughly Aug. 9.

During that time, traffic will be detoured to State Highway 20, East Frostad Road and Jones Road while road crews build a new dike and road.

The work is part of state Transportation’s Dugualla Bay environmental mitigation project, intended to restore saltwater marshes to 23 acres where settlers created farmland by building a dike nearly 100 years ago.

The project will remove the existing road, build a new dike, build a new road on top of that dike, and breach the original dike, which is located a few hundred yards east of Dike Road.

Those actions will let water from Dugualla Bay flow into the area at high tide, while still protecting from flooding the homes and farmland between State Route 20 and Dike Road, the agency said.