Major roadway in Seaside reopens after year-long closure

A major roadway in Seaside is back open after a one year closure.

The city threw a big party and held a ribbon cutting Thursday for the reopening of Broadway Avenue.

“We’ve totally essentially redone all of west Broadway, right down to the underground storm drains. We’ve made it from four lanes to two lanes with bulb-outs,” said Seaside Administrative Analyst, Sharon Mikesell.

The city also put in new street lights and bike lanes.

This particular project cost seven million dollars, all paid for by federal grant money.

It’s a part of the West Broadway Urban Village Improvement effort put on by Seaside.

“Which would totally be a makeover of the downtown Broadway area to make it a more vibrant area for the city of Seaside,” said Mikesell.

“The street just looks way prettier and way more like, you want to be here, you want to be walking on the street and visiting all the businesses around here so it just looks way more inviting,” said Quentin Minnich.

Not all businesses were happy with the disruption construction caused over the year, but the owner of the Oven Pizzeria said it is all for a good outcome.

“I came in with the anticipation that I knew that it was going to be a beautiful project and that the end result was going to be fantastic and was going to bring in new businesses, it was going to bring in some new customers,” said David Rodriguez, owner of the Oven Pizzeria.

Another business owner said the biggest improvement for him is the drainage.

“Because we had businesses across the street that actually flooded when it rained. So really important they got all that part done, more so than anything else I think,” said Tunes owner Tim Haines.

Seaside is throwing a four-day Broadway bash to celebrate.