GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – After six weeks, exciting for some and long for many, all roads that were closed for construction for the NFL Draft are now back open, as Oneida St. opened late Monday.
“It’s been pretty crazy with all the extra traffic, and it’s nice having everything slow back down,” Green Bay resident Leah Hess said.
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Fellow Green Bay resident Pam Schude quickly grew tired of the detours.
“I had to go all the way around,” she said.
And avoiding Titletown became a habit for customers, which had an unfortunate and heavy impact on businesses.
“Well, there’s definitely been a lot more phone calls on how to get to me, people who aren’t familiar, we have a lot of people from the U.P. and Appleton areas that are customers and didn’t know how to get here,” Team 2 Racing owner Tom Kalies said. “So overall traffic’s been decent but not what it used to be, I think that’s going to improve in the next week or so.”
At the Oneida BP, the main customer base stayed away from the sticky web of detours, and the construction workers for the draft site became the main source of revenue.
“We mostly had the crew from set up and take down, that was most of our business over the last few weeks,” manager April Maroney said.
Within hours on Tuesday morning, there was already a noticeable difference in customers making their way back to the Oneida BP.
“It’s picking up now that it’s open. People are going, ‘Oh, Oneida’s open!’” Maroney said. “I can see, already, my regulars coming back and getting their energy drinks and whatnot.”
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With the return of clients, businesses that once sat silent and empty amid the piercing noise of draft construction are expecting profit to file back in during the busy summer months.
“Huge relief that the roads are back open, I think it’s just going to make everything flow a little better for people in general, especially in this business area,” Kalies said. “Now people have more access to get to me.”
