A new hotel and Wendy’s are being built in Santa Maria off the Broadway exit intersection and the work is causing congestion for drivers who say they’re fed up.
Getting to work late, congestion, and frustration are now part of their daily commute and drivers are calling on city leaders to do something about it.
“The construction has definitely made it worse. They’ve cut up that street probably five or six times. Each time they do, they bring everything down to one lane. They have to do traffic control going back and forth. It’s really created a big problem,” said Santa Maria resident William Adams.
This already busy North Broadway intersection has become more backed up and after a recent fatal motorcycle accident at Broadway and Preisker Ln., people want improvements.
“I think that the city needs to take more consideration into their planning when they do things like this because it is a residential area and they’re bringing more business into the area and it’s going to cause a lot of more problems,” said Santa Maria resident Tina Burke.
To address the concerns, crews will add a right turn lane and signal modifications for the intersection, which they hope will improve traffic flow and congestion.
In the meantime, residents are emphasizing safety.
“Slow down, be vigilant. There’s a lot of people out there taking their children to school, there’s people going to work in the mornings, and of course with all the new traffic that we’re going to ultimately have over there with people coming and going from the restaurant and everything else, just be really careful,” Adams said.
Construction for the Hampton Inn Hotel is set to be completed this fall and Wendy’s could open as soon as August 1, 2019.
However, regarding the improvements, we’ve reached out to the developers for more information on a timeline for those changes but have not yet heard back. We do know that work is set to begin before the end of the year
