The intersection of Belair and Washington roads might soon be known as Evans' home improvement hub.

Construction on the Lowe's Home Improvement store is almost done and work could begin this week to tear down the old Evans Middle School across the street, possibly as a site for rival The Home Depot.

"We're tentatively scheduled to go ahead and begin work on the site on or around (today)," said Hiram Thompson, a co-owner of Thompson Building Wrecking Co. in Augusta, which has the demolition contract for the school at North Belair and Washington roads.

Mr. Thompson said demolition should take 90 to 100 days. But first, he said, asbestos inspections are needed.

"There's a lot of prep work to be done before we can tear it down," he said.

In March 2005, the Columbia County school system sold the property for $4.8 million to Evans Middle Partners, a partnership between Atlanta-based Abernathy and Timberlake Investment Group LLC and Blanchard and Calhoun.

The plan has been to build a retail center called Evans Town Square.

Vic Mills, of Blanchard and Calhoun, has said The Home Depot has shown interest in the site, but numerous calls seeking an update were not returned.

An "under contract" sign can be seen at the site.

If The Home Depot does build a store at the site, it would put the two rivals in proximity similar to their situation on Bobby Jones Expressway.

Regardless, Lowe's will open first.

Hull Storey Development is in the process of turning the store over to Lowe's so it can begin installing inside fittings and moving in its stock.

"It's substantially complete,'' said Kendal Jones, a vice president for Hull Storey. She said Lowe's plans to have the store open for business by the third week in January.

Work began on the site about three months ago.

The $18.5 million, 116,000-square-foot store will bring with it 175 new jobs, according to the company.

As part of the work, a new traffic light at Old Evans and Washington roads also has gone up and is expected to be in flashing mode within the next week, and 30 days after that it should become fully functional, officials said.

Reach Preston Sparks at (706) 868-1222, ext. 115, or preston.sparks@augustachronicle.com.