SARANAC LAKE – The excavator’s bucket lifted the massive slab of old concrete about 15 feet up in the air, then dropped it.

It landed on another large piece of concrete with a loud thud and broke in two. The big machine then scooped up the smaller pieces and hauled them away.

A few yards away, a pair of hard-hat-wearing workers were standing in a hole 20 feet below Main Street, stringing together a grid of rebar that will reinforce a concrete wall.

Construction of the Hotel Saranac’s two-story parking garage is in full swing amid the summer bustle of business and traffic downtown.

People who live and work near the site say the biggest construction project the village has seen in decades has been dusty and loud, but those who spoke Tuesday had relatively few complaints. Some seem to welcome it since the work is part of Roedel Companies’ multi-million-dollar restoration of the the village’s much-loved and much-missed landmark hotel.

“We’re so pleased that the hotel is being renovated that the small amount of inconvenience is not important to us,” said Pat Wiley, who lives behind the hotel on Academy Street and works at the Saranac Lake Free Library, across Main Street from the construction zone. Wiley said she hasn’t heard any complaints from library patrons so far.

“It’s a little dusty, but they’ve got a great crew out there working,” she said. “Progress is being made.”

Around the corner from the library, a trio of employees on break from Medical Associates of Saranac Lake were watching the big dig from behind their office, an easy task now that the row of trees that used to separate the two properties is gone, replaced with a 5-foot-tall chain-link fence for now. They said the construction has been loud and at times has shaken the building.

Sue Whitcomb reported the same. She lives in a third-story apartment on Academy Street.

“I get up late, but they don’t wake me up usually,” she said. “The only thing that gets me is the excavators with the treads. It shakes the whole house. But they knock off around 3 or 3:30, so the evening is quiet.

“I’m excited for it,” Whitcomb said of the hotel’s restoration. “I get a bird’s eye view of it every day. I’ve been taking pictures of the progress.”

Whitcomb said her biggest concern is where she’s going to park once the snow flies. She used to be able to park in the hotel’s old parking lot across the street.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen this winter, if they’re going to let us park in the garage or if we have to find someplace else to park,” she said.

As Whitcomb spoke, Lori and Bryan Keough were relaxing on their front porch, taking in the cacophony of construction noise. Their Academy Street house is right next to the work zone. The Keoughs said the workers have been friendly and respectful of the neighbors.

Still, “It’d be nice for it to get done and move on,” Bryan Keough said.

It’s been nonstop construction for Academy Street residents since April, when the village tore up their road to replace the aging water and sewer infrastructure underneath it. By the time that was done in June, work on the parking garage was underway.

“We’ve had a very busy time,” Wiley said, “but we heard the pipes under the street were 100 years old, so having them replaced couldn’t be better, and we’re going to have a nice road. The (village workers) who did the road were so courteous. They were great.”

Lori Keough said her biggest priority is that the sidewalk on her side of the street gets rebuilt – something that’s not scheduled to happen until after the parking garage work is done.

Mark Armstrong, the on-site project manager for ROK Builders, Roedel Companies’ construction wing, said today he expects the pre-cast pieces of the parking garage will start to be assembled in mid September. That work will take about three to four weeks, he said, “and I would assume by latter September, early October the parking garage will be up and working and we can actually park on it. Parking is always an issue.”

There hasn’t been much work happening inside the hotel lately, which Armstrong attributed to design changes and other issues.

“It’s going to start rocking and rolling pretty heavy on the interior in the next couple weeks,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty good-size crew coming in.”

In May, Fred Roedel said he expected the new Hotel Saranac could reopen by January, although a more recent press release from Roedel Companies called for a “winter 2017” opening.

Whenever it happens, “It’s going to be good,” Bryan Keough said. “I think a lot of people are looking forward to going back up there and enjoying it like they used to do.”