Regina ready to celebrate 11th Avenue reopening after years of construction

After several years of construction, Regina's 11th Avenue is finally, permanently, open to traffic. The street's four-year revitalization project upgraded roads, sidewalks, lighting, and underground infrastructure. The project stretched all the way along 11th between Albert and Broad Streets. The goal was to make it more accessible and welcoming. Mayor Chad Byszynski says the work was important for the downtown's future. By investing now, we're improving reliability, reducing future maintenance challenges, ensuring that our downtown has the capacity needed to support future growth and development. He says the project was completed on time and under budget. The city says that will save Regina anywhere from one and a half to two million dollars. By taking this approach we were able to maximize efficiencies, reduce costs and minimize the need for future construction. That's great news this is the end of year four for the construction. Chad Boudreaux owns a comic store on 11th. He's ready for the work to be over. Four years is a long time to have road closures and sidewalk detours, a lot of frustration and exhaustion from people that work, visit and run a business downtown. He says his store and others nearby were hit hard by the construction and now that it's over he's looking forward to welcoming people back to downtown Regina. It's been a tough few years for restaurants and businesses and other services downtown we'd love to see you back the city says there will be some short-term road closures through the fall and spring while crews put the finishing touches on the street but otherwise the road ahead looks a lot smoother Laura Gillis, CBC News Regina