The Town of Essex is celebrating the official completion of the Essex Streetscape and Victoria Avenue project.
The Town held the official reopening of the section this weekend, where residents and business owners gathered to celebrate following the lengthy project that started back in May 2023.
Among the new additions along Talbot Street near Victoria Avenue are flex street parking, AODA-compliant sidewalks, accessible crosswalks, benches, bike racks and greenery.
Initial plans for streetscape projects in the cores of Essex and Harrow started in 2014 however they were continuously delayed by previous councils.
Due to budgetary pressures, Essex councillors approved a scaled-back version of the project last year at a cost of approximately $9-million.
Sherry Bondy, Essex mayor, says this project represents a significant investment in Essex.
"It is truly impressive and we have a remarkable transformation that's taken place. The vision we had on the onset has now become a reality, and you can see what we're using it for now, it's beautiful, we can have markets, street fests."
Stephanie Winger, Essex BIA Chair, says it's been a long road to get to this point.
"There was a lot of infrastructure that had to be done, and just like when you're doing work on your home, you don't notice the insulation in your attic, or maybe the sewer lines, you notice the paint colours, and your new kitchen. It was a long road, it finally got approval to begin, and we had grant money from the province and federal funding."
Winger says residents and visitors will notice big changes.
"Definitely the parking, you'll notice we're on stones versus just regular pavement and it's a different look and feel - hard to get used to. And it doesn't have a regular curb that people are used to, so they created this flex street, so there was some getting used to around there."
The federal government provided $750,000 through the Canada Community Revitalization Fund and the provincial government provided $104,000 as part of its Rural Economic Development Grant to support the Essex streetscaping.
In June 2023, Essex council approved a number of measures to provide aid to businesses affected by the streetscape construction.