ATLANTA — A busy cut-through lined with businesses should reopen soon.
Cheshire Bridge has been closed for more than a year. It is near I-85 and Lenox Road. The bridge was shut down after a fire a year ago, and it has been a headache ever since.
Now, the bridge may finally reopen by the end of the month and businesses cannot wait.
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“Lunches have suffered quite a bit and we’ve lost some businesses because of it,” George Trusler, manager of Taqueria Del Sol, told Channel 2 Action News.
For Trusler, whose business is located on Cheshire Bridge, there has been a lot of waiting and watching.
“It was from the time they tore the bridge down until they put the fences up and the city waited until July 1 to start the construction that was a little concerning,” he said. “They really didn’t get started until July 1, so they’ve done a lot in a short period of time.”
Taquaria Del Sol is just steps away from this bridge, which had to be knocked down and rebuilt after a fire in Aug. 2021.
Cheshire Bridge was shut down along this section during that construction, cutting off traffic that many businesses counted on.
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“We’ve lost about 25 percent of their business,” Jennifer Spell of Atlanta Water Gardens said.
”We hope some of them can come back,” Trusler said.
Some were not sure if they would survive, after battling through COVID-19.
In fact, some did not. But for those still standing, now there is an end in sight.
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The Atlanta Department of Transportation said Thursday the bridge is on schedule to reopen on Oct. 31 with at least one lane of traffic moving in each direction.
After more than a year of struggling to survive, the businesses here are just 11 days from the reopening and from the customers they pray will find their way back.
“I think I should be the first one to go across the bridge once it’s open,” Trusler said. “We’re ready, that’s for sure.”
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