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Cascade Road reopens after construction
Businesses on southwest Atlanta's Cascade Road are celebrating now that work on a construction project has finished more than two and a half years after it started.
ATLANTA - After more than two years of construction and delays, southwest Atlanta's Cascade Road Corridor is back open.
This week, the construction blockades came down, and the street opened up, leading to celebrations by local business owners.
MORE: Cascade Road business owners meet with mayor over construction frustration
What we know:
The over-$18 million Complete Streets project began in 2021 and is supposed to widen sidewalks, enhance bus stops, and extend bike lanes on Cascade Road from the Atlanta city limits to Willis Mill Road.
Parts of the two-mile project had to be redone after the design did not leave enough room for fire trucks and ambulances, extending the finishing date to mid-2026.
Cascade Road is back open after a months-long detour due to construction. (FOX 5)
The construction led to part of the road being blocked for months. Due to the reconfiguration of the roadway to address community concerns, the removal of the detour was delayed from July to September.
Dig deeper:
After months of closures, businesses in the area struggled to keep their doors open.
"We've been able to keep the same number of people on our payroll, but that's all a sacrifice - a personal sacrifice - because we're not making money internally," Cafe Bartique owner Angela Ingram told FOX 5. "We have to work externally to make enough money to pay our staff and keep them, because they are a part of Cascade."
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Cascade Road business owners encouraged
Several Business owners along Cascade Road in southwest Atlanta say their meeting Wednesday with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens was encouraging and they believe financial help is on the way. The businesses complain they have taken an economic hit because the city has closed the streets and created detours as the Cascade Complete Streets Project has dragged on for two and a half years.
A group of business owners joined forces with former Ambassador Andrew Young to call for a comprehensive economic recovery plan and met with the mayor earlier in August.
After that meeting, they said the city had promised financial and technical support for the businesses and to fast-track the work to get the roads back open.
What's next:
The city plans to host a Cascade Heights business festival to reintroduce the area to residents.
Work will continue on the road with the expectation it will finish in the upcoming months.
The Source: Information for this story came from a report by Lindsay Tuman and previous FOX 5 reporting.