In preparation for the East Link light rail project, Sound Transit will shut down a major thoroughfare in Downtown Bellevue.

Starting Monday, June 13, a contractor working for Sound Transit will close a portion of 110th Avenue Northeast between the Bellevue Transit Center and city hall. This portion of the road will be closed entirely for about five weeks as crews prepare the soil underneath the road for tunneling.

“Our contractor is going to tear up the street,” said Bruce Gray, spokesman for Sound Transit. “The soil under that street has been moved around a lot. There has been a lot of utility work there over the years. We want the soil under that street to be more compact.”

From mid-June to late July, crews will be closing all lanes of 110th between Northeast 6th Street and the northeast entrance to City Center Plaza II. The second phase of construction, running from late July to early September, will see the western-most lane reopened to southbound traffic.

The East Link project calls for a tunnel running through Downtown Bellevue, and the north portal will emerge next to City Hall on 110th Avenue Northeast, necessitating the shut down.

Gray said crews would move more than 1,700 yards of soil and replace it with “lean concrete,” a mix of concrete with a high water content usually used a base layer for other types of concrete. This should provide some semblance of support as crews bore a sequential excavation method tunnel beneath it.

“They’ll be making a nice, firm cap for the tunnel,” Gray said.

Work will be done mostly during business hours — between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday — and people will still be able to get into city hall, City Center Plaza II, Bellevue Transit Center and Skyline Tower.

Signage will alert drivers that the road is shut. The contractor crews will also relocate a natural gas pipeline on the road.

The noisiest parts of the construction — saw cutting and pavement removal — will happen this Saturday.