After six months of construction, North Saddle Creek and the "Peanut" roundabout are officially open, bringing relief to local businesses and improved safety for pedestrians.
The city began work on the North Saddle Creek Streetscape Improvement Project in July, aiming to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety in the area.
Construction and road closures hit local businesses hard during the project. Dana Peffer, who owns Sgt. Peffer's, said losing her drive-thru for two months was the most challenging part.
"60% of my business goes out that window," Peffer said.
Despite the difficulties, businesses in the area received tremendous support from the neighborhood during the closure, including busloads of people coming to visit. Peffer said this community support helped keep them in business.
"I'll say it all day, every day. We have a really good, loyal customer base, and they'll come inside, you know, they'll park and walk," Peffer said. "I had some customers last week, even though this is not a drive-through situation, but I had a customer that literally parked like three blocks away and walked."
Peffer, who grew up in the neighborhood, said this is her first time seeing the roundabout without potholes in 20 years.
"The fact that they had it done in two weeks is impressive. And I was running around that thing, and I was like, there are no potholes. This is amazing," Peffer said.
Pedestrians say they already feel safer walking in the area.
"This roundabout has been very scary and even not even driving it, just being in the car, like hitting all those potholes going around, it was bad," Lillie Mauer said.
While construction has wrapped up and the streets are open, some beautification work is still to come.
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