APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – A major stretch of Oneida Street in Appleton is finally re-open after two years of construction, which has motorists, and particularly businesses in the area, relieved.
The project to replace the road from the Oneida Skyline Bridge to Valley Road began in the Spring of 2017 and finally ended on Wednesday.
To see the orange barrels and cones removed is certainly a pleasant sight for motorists in the area, but no one is probably more pleased than area businesses.
One of the many businesses that suffered during this elongated construction project was Neimuth’s Southside Market on Oneida Street.
“We made it,” says owner Richard Neimuth. “It was a flip of the coin back in August whether we were going to make it or not.”
His business, like many others in the area, are now trying to get back to normal. But according to Neimuth, the negative effect that construction had for the past two years can’t be forgotten.
“We won’t ever recoup that,” he says. “The best two years in the U.S. economy in the last 50 years and I didn’t participate in it.”
Similar sentiments were shared elsewhere on Oneida Street at Wilder’s Cutting Edge Bistro.
“It was tough for a while,” says owner Terrance Wilder. “But, it’s finally happening.”
What comes next is hopefully a return of familiar faces and the traffic that they enjoyed before the project.
“We’re getting things back to normal,” he says. “We’ll see what happens with the holiday season, so hopefully things will pick back up anyway, but this being open is going to be huge.”
Next up is more good news for drivers in the area.
The Oneida Street-Highway 10/441 interchange, which is a separate project from the state Department of Transportation, is expected to finish up next week. That project will include Northeast Wisconsin’s first ever diverging diamond feature.
