The Civilian Conservation Corps statue stands Friday in front of the Cultural Building in Augusta, which has been undergoing a $45 million renovation. When the multiyear project is completed, the Maine State Museum, State Library and Archive will relocate to the Capitol Complex building from their temporary quarters elsewhere in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — If  you think your last move was a hassle, imagine having so much stuff to move you measure it by the mile or the ton or the age of your paperwork.

The Maine State Library has 7 miles worth of library materials. Its neighbor, the Maine State Museum, has among its 800,000 or so items to be moved a 9-ton steam locomotive from 1846. And the State Archives, has 60,000 boxes of documents, including fragile historic papers dating to 1630 that must be preserved and protected.

Those will be some of the unique challenges in the massive move that will come as the $45 million overhaul of the state Cultural Building in the Capitol Complex nears completion in the coming months

With the huge renovation project expected to be done around April, leaders of the building’s three major tenants are making plans for their massive moves, starting with the archives space, where workers have already brought some shelving into their renovated area. For now, the archives will be closed to the public, except by appointment, interim State Archivist Christian Cotz said, until they’ve made the move into the new spot.

The library move will likely happen next, with shelving expected to be installed around June, followed by the transport of the library’s collections starting around Labor Day.

Lori Fisher, state librarian, said they’re working to get organized now. When asbestos and other infrastructure problems were discovered, making the planned renovation a much bigger project, it prompted a rushed move out of the building into temporary spaces. Planning is underway to make their return deliberately and thoughtfully.

“We’ve got 7 linear miles of collections, which we moved out under duress,” Fisher said. “We don’t want to move in like that.”

The library’s temporary quarters at 242 State St., which was home to the Public Utilities Commission and before that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, will be closed to walk-in users on Fridays to give staff time to prepare for the move and round up the collections that are being stored in four separate locations.

Fisher said residents can still call the library on Fridays because staff will be working, but the doors will be closed to the public. She said eventually, to accommodate the move, there will likely be a time when the library’s temporary home and its renovated home will be closed to the public.

The Maine Cultural Building’s reopening date to the public hasn’t been set yet, but likely won’t be until 2026.

State Museum Director Bernard Fishman, left, State Librarian Lori Fisher and interim State Archivist Christian Cotz outline their challenges Friday in returning to the Cultural Building when its renovations are completed. The three are seen at the Maine State Library’s temporary quarters at 242 State St. in Augusta. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

During the nearly five-year closure of the Cultural Building, Maine State Museum officials have made plans to install three new major exhibits as soon as they’re able to get back into the building. Installing them in 13,000 square feet of space — about a third of the museum’s area — will likely take up to another year before the museum will be able to reopen.

Bernard Fishman, state museum director, said the reopening will come in two phases.

In 2026, the first will feature the new installations, which are the museum’s biggest changes in 45 years.

They are:

• “Beyond the Postcard: Stories of the Maine Experience.”

• “Vector: A Whale’s Life in the Gulf of Maine,” which will feature two massive humpback whale skeletons — a mother and calf — to be accompanied by displays about the ecology and biology of the Gulf of Maine.

• Lunder Education Center, the museum’s first dedicated education space, where students may watch presentations and check out audio and visual displays.

The initial phase will also include the installation of two exhibitions, “Maine Quilts: 250 Years of Comfort and Community”, and the older “At Home in Maine,” on the museum’s upper floors.

A second phase in 2027 will bring back the refurbished and updated museum exhibits, such as Made in Maine and 12,000 years in Maine. A new exhibit will display the returning 1846 Lion steam locomotive, one of the oldest-surviving American-built railroad engines, used to haul cars loaded with lumber from Whitneyville in Washington County to the dock at Machiasport harbor.

Fishman, Fisher and Cotz said the unexpected closures of their operations gave their staffs time to expand online offerings, many of which will continue beyond the physical building reopening. They said the closures provided time to evaluate how they do things so when they reopen they will all be making fresh starts.

They noted the exact dates of their moves back into the building are hard to determine in advance because so many factors depend on other things happening in a timely manner. For example, shelving, including new moveable shelving the state Legislature approved purchasing for the library and archives, must be in place before the collections for them can be returned. The shelving can be moved to make space for presentations to as many as 100 people, Fisher said.

In 2020, the Cultural Building was shut down for renovations. The work began with emergency asbestos abatement and mechanical and electrical upgrades, including to the building’s air handling system.

When first announced, the project was expected to take about two years. But challenges along the way and an expansion of the project to address other issues have delayed its completion.

“It’ll be better for the collections, and a much more welcoming and inviting space,” Fishman said of the renovated site. “It’s taken very long, much longer than we expected, so we had to be pretty resilient. Moving back into the building will be a complex process, it’s all interlocking. It’s also been an opportunity to improve, to upgrade. We’re excited to get back.”