The Perkins Road Overpass is set to reopen Friday morning, after being closed since mid-March. Jim Ferguson, the city-parish drainage and bridge engineer, says the opening is a few weeks ahead of schedule. “We pushed it hard to get it open in time for the first day of school,” he says. The 72-year-old overpass underwent a much needed rehabilitation. The closing caused headaches for businesses by the overpass, which had customers scared away by all of the work and detours. “There are some regular customers I haven’t seen since the bridge closed,” says Cliff Boulden, manager of Bet-R grocery store, which is right by the overpass.
Dave Remmetter, owner of Chelsea’s Café, which is underneath the overpass, says his business was off 25% to 30% while the overpass was closed. Chelsea’s faced a triple whammy during the construction: one of the direct routes was cut off, a temporary fence was put up that hid the bar and eliminated parking and Remmetter temporarily lost his liquor license during a well-publicized dispute with state Alcohol and Tobacco Control office. Remmetter is thankful the work wrapped up a few weeks ahead of schedule and is ready for a busy fall. “Getting the fence taken down last week was a little burst of excitement,” he says. “We’re looking forward to being back to normal.”—Timothy Boone
