NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Riverfront businesses in New Albany, Indiana are counting down the days for the Sherman Minton bridge to finish construction in mid-November.
Stevie Carper, owner of the New Albany Sugar Shoppe, was busy baking fresh macarons and serving sweets to customers on Wednesday.
"I'm so excited," she exclaimed. "I have been waiting for this day for three years."
Caper opened her candy store during the pandemic. She said between pandemic-era restrictions, last year’s downtown New Albany construction and the Sherman Minton, she's ready to experience normalcy.
"This bridge construction is our final hurdle to get everybody to coming back downtown, to downtown New Albany, and checking out our historic downtown district," Carper said.
The Indiana Department of Transportation announced that construction is in it's fifth and final stage. The project is about one year behind the original schedule.
"It's just been up and down with that bridge," said Quinton Schroeder, assistant manager of Baer City Winery. "It's in and out of construction all of the time."
Schroeder said it's important to have a reliable, toll free bridge.
"I do think that having to pay a toll does kind of suck," he said.
Bella Roma chef, Stephen David, agrees.
"If the other bridges were not toll bridges, there probably wouldn't be nearly as much of an uproar about the Sherman Minton having the closures and issues that it does," David said.
Though there's an end in sight, businesses said they aren't confident the construction will end in mid-November.
"I'm going to give them some grace period and say probably mid-December," Carper said.
"I try to be as much of a pragmatist as possible, but I'll believe it when I see it," David said.
Schroeder said he thinks this won't be the last time there are closures.
"I'm sure it'll go back into construction again," Schroeder said.
Store owners and employees shared the "it's a long time coming" sentiment.
"Let's just hope and pray that it does get done in November and it'll make everybody's life a lot easier," David said.
All they can do for now is wait.
The Sherman Minton Renewal said in a press release that all long term closures are done, but there will be one more short term closure on Sept. 13 affecting only eastbound traffic. They said that this project will add 30 years of life to the 61-year-old bridge that connected Louisville and New Albany.
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