“No parking” sign on the corner of 3rd ave and 5th street south.

For anyone who has ever driven a vehicle before, they know how much of a headache it is to navigate road construction. Even more so when it’s preventing your customers easy access to your business.

The City of Lethbridge is undergoing a project to revitalize the downtown core and increase foot traffic. Once this project is over, the new and improved walkways and roads are hoping to attract more people into the area and help support the local economy.

The challenge is, while construction is going on, business owners are finding it is doing the opposite.

Due to the extensive road work being done, many businesses are happy to see the project is nearing completion as customers have not had easy access to their stores while others are being deterred by the noise. A few shop owners find this frustrating but also understand the long-term benefit to the work being done.

“We’ve had a lot of people call and ask if we’re still open, so I can imagine there are quite a few who come down and see the construction and just turn away,” says Shaymus Shaman, employee of B.O.B’s Headquarters located downtown.

Though many stores may be getting slightly less business during the construction, Shaman says they think it will inevitably lead to greater things moving forward.

“At this point it is what it is. We trust what the city is doing and ultimately this is only going to make downtown a better place to be. It’s a short-term pain for long term gain,” says Shaman.

With the work that’s being done right now, the City of Lethbridge is hoping to create a “festival square.” This will be a better spot for farmer’s markets and events to be held and increase the appeal of downtown to the general public.

Melissa Johnson, Business Revitalization Zone interim executive director says she definitely sees the struggle these revitalization projects have on many downtown businesses although she knows these projects will have a major positive impact on the local economy as a whole.

Johnson says the updated infrastructure, especially along 3 Avenue, will attract more foot traffic and ideally, more businesses to open up in the area.

“Having the walkability in the downtown core really provides us the ability to be on a stage that nobody else in the downtown core has,” Johnson said. “It makes it really enticing for businesses to come down here.”

The construction is said to be done sometime this fall ,according to Johnson. Businesses won’t have to endure the road work much longer and neither will their patrons.