Downtown Birmingham construction on track to finish early August

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. (WJBK) - Several blocks of construction have brought a bit of a headache to downtown Birmingham. 

The Old Woodward reconstruction project started in March, and since then restaurant and shop owners are doing what it takes to adjust to the big heavy machinery and construction workers that have taken over.

"Lunch business has slowed down, and our retail has slowed down," says Matthew Barkach of Churchill Restaurant. "Besides that, everything in the evenings is fine."

Patrons are still figuring things out, too.

"We were over on that side of the street trying to get to the store right there, and we had to go all the way around," shopper Peggy Cassab told us. 

City Manager, Joe Valentine, says construction workers are making progress. The roads are starting to look more like roads again, compared to the dirt that was there earlier this year. Valentine says the work is 75 percent complete. 

"As of today, actually, we have all the concrete in for all of streets in the construction zone," he says.

And this project involves more than roadwork; sidewalks are also getting a facelift.

Valentine says it looks like the project will meet its targeted completion date of early August.

For those who want to stay informed of road and sidewalk closures can signup for alerts. You can get more information about that here.