BANGOR – Construction on the new Bangor police station has begun, Deputy Police Chief Peter Arno said Thursday.

Nickerson & O’Day of Brewer on Tuesday began doing some earth work and removing the brick wall along Summer Street.

“They are going to be starting full swing into the building project here soon,” Arno said.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held next week, but no official date has been set, he said.

The $8 million project will sit between Main and Cedar streets, where the Bangor Radiator Shop is currently located.

The city acquired the shop to make way for the new station. The building will remain intact until the owner’s new shop on Maine Avenue is completed.

The station will replace the existing one on Court Street, which was built 65 years ago and is in poor structural condition.

The new station, designed by the Bangor firm WBRC Architects-Engineers, consists of an existing building, which will be overhauled, and a new three-story office building.

The goal is to have the 40,000 square feet work space completed by Oct. 31, 2006, Arno said.

“The first few weeks the project will look like they’re making slow progress, but they are really working hard,” Arno said.