CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Business owners along Everhart Road are noting an uptick in customers following the completion of the major construction project that they say disrupted traffic for nearly two years.
"We've seen business increase 70% in the last few days since construction has been completed," said one business owner, reflecting a sentiment echoed throughout the corridor.
The $30 million Everhart construction project wrapped up a few weeks ahead of schedule, according to city officials, bringing relief to merchants who struggled with reduced foot traffic during the lengthy roadwork.
"Obviously we did have some difficult times just navigating a huge loss of traffic throughout the past couple of years," said Autumn Hensick, manager at Threads.
Donna Titus, owner of Always in Bloom Florist, experienced similar challenges during construction.
"Business has been less than because of traffic. People don't want to go through all of this," Titus said.
Oscar Rojas, owner of EG Credit Solutions, described the construction period as particularly difficult.
"Pretty challenging at least for a full week when they were working with the concrete they blocked everything here," Rojas said.
Now that the orange construction barrels have been cleared, business owners are seeing immediate improvements. The timing proved especially beneficial for Always in Bloom Florist with Valentine's Day approaching.
"The people that I spoke with at the city were trying to push to get that done because they knew my parking lot was totally blocked off. So people had to park in different parking lots to come to my parking lot," Titus said.
Stephanie Jordan, CEO of United Way of The Coastal Bend, praised the project's completion.
"Everhart is a major thoroughfare for our city and it's really going to help businesses and it really helps the community and I'm just thrilled with how it turned out," Jordan said.
The positive changes are already visible to business owners who endured the construction period.
"Actually yesterday I realized the whole thing. It feels really really good," Rojas said.
Hensick noted the immediate impact on customer traffic.
"Just yesterday we were talking about what an increase we had seen in foot traffic and just folks coming in earlier throughout the day," Hensick said.
Despite adapting during construction by expanding online sales and shipping nationwide, businesses are grateful for the completed project.
"But the finished project itself is beautiful. We're grateful to have found ways to get a little creative, putting things on our website, shipping things nationwide," Hensick said.
While the road is now open, city officials say final touches are being made over the next few days, and some lanes may intermittently close as work is completed.
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