Abbeville, La. - In the coming weeks, the city of Abbeville will start construction on primary roads throughout downtown. The 1.8 million dollar project aims to improve safety and revitalize the city. As part of the road transfer from DOTD, the state will cover 1.3 million dollars and the city tax will fund the remainder.
Local business owners like Brian Dale who owns Brain’s Woodshop, in the heart of Abbeville, hope the new road improvements can generate new business.
“The new roads will help my business by bringing people in and it’s kind of nice to see them bring a new road to an old part of town,” he said.
For the past three years, Brian has been sawing his way into the hearts of Abbeville one wood piece at a time. He transforms wood into works of art. “I do custom design cabinets, chairs, basically anything out of wood you can think of,” he said.
Brian told KATC that having a business on main street helps him connect with the community, so when he heard about the new road improvements, he was excited for the positive new changes.
“The first two years I was here, I had people say that they had not seen my sign. It was mainly because they were looking down to dodge potholes and they couldn’t look up. So, I had to put a lower sign and I got a lot more business since. It’s kind of nice to see them bring a new road to an old part of town. Any new road in Louisiana is a road people want to be on and it’s nice that they are going to start near my business,” Brian said.
