It’s not clear exactly when construction crews will be able to return to King Street in Waterloo Region, other than that it won’t be anytime soon.

Work was halted at the site two weeks ago, when an old corduroy road was discovered well below the 21st-century street.

The road is believed to be one of the first roads ever created in the area – possibly the very first.

Made out of logs, they were placed over swamps and other soggy areas where traditional dirt paths were less feasible.

Charlton Carscallen is a senior archeologist with Aecom, one of the companies that makes up the GrandLinq consortium.

He says the discovery of the road came as a bit of a surprise. Even more surprising, he says, was how well it was preserved.

“Sections of it are in far better shape than I ever would have anticipated,” he said Friday.

Archeological crews have already determined where exactly the remnants of the road remain – from the rail tracks to just north of William Street.

Now, they’re working to dig up the pieces. As they do so, they’ll be photographing, mapping and recording everything they find.

GrandLinq spokesperson Avril Fisken says work is underway to expedite the process “as much as possible” in each of its stages.

“They’re going to be working the hours that they can, and the weekends, in order to expedite the investigation,” she said.

After that, the archeologists will need a few days to compile a report on the road for the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport – which will then have up to 20 days to respond.

“We’re working with them to, as much as possible, shorten that,” Fisken said.

Only once all that is complete can work on King Street resume.

In the meantime, construction workers are being redeployed to other parts of the Ion route, mainly around uptown Waterloo.

Some workers have been moved to the intersection of Caroline and Allen streets.

Plans had called for work at that intersection to be done one piece at a time.

Those plans have changed so that all the work will be done at once, keeping the intersection closed to vehicles until mid-June.

Uptown business owners say they don’t mind the break in construction, but hope it won’t affect the Nov. 30 target date they were given for King Street to reopen to traffic.

“We’re really hoping that … we’ll see the end of construction then,” said Mandy Brouse, a co-owner of Words Worth Books.

At one point, construction had been planned to start earlier in uptown Waterloo. That changed when businesses lobbied for a January start, allowing them to remain open during the Christmas shopping season.

“We understand the importance of (the Nov. 30 date), and we’re doing what we can,” Fisken said.

Once the logs that made up the corduroy road have been documents, some are expected to go to the City of Waterloo’s museum.

The rest will likely be thrown out.

Brouse has taken the unexpected developments in stride.

Friday, Words Worth Books posted what appeared to be a photograph of a newspaper to its social media accounts.

The newspaper claimed that uptown construction was being halted because of the discovery of buried books below the corduroy road – claiming it to be the “lost library” of Abraham Seagram, a forgotten member of that renowned Waterloo family.

A few clues may have helped keen observers realize that the newspaper wasn’t real, including the ‘April 1’ date at the top of the page, and a headline claiming hoaxes occur more often when April begins.

“Although we’re frustrated, we’re keeping our humour,” Brouse said.