NORTHAMPTON — Following the submittal of its 100% design guidelines for the Picture Main Street project, the city is hosting an informational session to present its Main Street redesign plans to the public from 4 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday at 180 Main St.

The city first began submitting design plans to the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) in 2021. Although the city submitted its completed design plans in December last year, the city discovered in November that Eversource had installed its new utility lines in a “different location than their agreed-upon design plans called for,” prompting the need for further utility testing, the city stated on its website.

In the spring, the city began digging about 20 test pits to identify the precise location of gas lines that were potentially installed incorrectly by Eversource, a discovery that delayed the project’s start by at least six months.

Planning & Sustainability Director Carolyn Misch, in an interview Wednesday, explained that most of the planning and design changes that will be presented on Wednesday are minor and reflect simple alterations such as brick sidewalk color, bike rack placement or tree planting locations.

“Essentially, it’s been the same since the 20-25% submittal. It was tweaked a little bit at the 75% submittal, but between 75% and 100% it’s all the fine-tuned grading,” Misch said. “It’s counting all the bike racks and making sure they’re in the right location, putting the trees in the precise location so there’s no conflict with the underground conduits … it’s all the really important details in order to make the surface work the way we want it to work.”

In total, Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra previously explained, the approximately $43.3 million project is expected to cost $11.8 million out of the city’s pocket — with $3 million in anticipated funding to come from Chapter 90 and Capital Improvement funding, $5.4 million from state and federal grant funds and $3.4 million from local restricted funds.

About $8.8 million of the city’s portion of the costs has already been spent or allocated. These funds, Sciarra noted in May, will be matched with $31.5 million in state and federal dollars.

Misch, noting that the project’s estimated cost has not changed since the mayor’s most recent estimate in May, explained that she is excited to present renderings of the project and provide the public an opportunity to ask city officials about the project.

“There’ll be images and renderings created to enliven what’s on the actual design plans —those will be available for people to see, and then people can ask questions. If they have a particular interest in one of the plazas that’s going to be created, they can ask the Toole Design teams,” Misch said. “It’s not going to be the only one, we’re going to be doing more in the fall.”