After coping with the daily congestion of North Main Street construction for more than a year, J. J. Pearse was surprised to see the multitude of orange barrels disappear and the lanes open up almost overnight.

“It was nice to see, all of a sudden, that the road had opened up,” Pearse, a graduate student at the University who lives on the corner of North Main Street and West Poe Road, said.

The majority of construction is complete and is projected to end this month due to favorable weather, said Theresa Pollick, District 2 public information officer for the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Most of the construction included utility work and repaving. The purpose of construction, which began summer 2011, was to add more lanes to Poe Road and North Main Street to ease congestion.

While the majority of construction may be nearing an end, the project isn’t projected to be complete until Aug. 2013, Pollick said.

Pearse said he was not aware the construction was ahead of schedule until he saw the road open up, but it came as a nice surprise.

“It’s great; I noticed less congestion immediately,” he said. “The street has opened up a lot.”

For the past few months, construction blocked off Pearse’s side of the street, sometimes forcing him to park his car elsewhere for a few days at a time, he said.

His yard, which used to be host to construction crews, bulldozers and heavy machinery, is now only host to a few orange barrels lining the edge of the property, serving as one of the last remnants of construction along with the pulled-up dirt along the new sidewalks.

Pearse, who lives with his sister, Liz, said that overall, living so close to the construction hasn’t been so bad.

The construction crews were always helpful and accommodating when it came to parking during work near the driveway, he said.

Residents like Pearse aren’t the only ones who are relieved the construction is wrapping up.

Businesses affected by construction are starting to see sales improve.

Rob Armstrong, spokesperson for Big Boy Family Restaurants and Emmaleen Hartley, general manager of Rally’s, said sales are back to what they were before construction started.

The businesses may have endured, but it wasn’t without challenges.

“During construction, it was difficult to get to the restaurant,” Armstrong said.

Business was down by 35 percent and was projected to be even lower if it weren’t for a loyal group of customers, he said.

Another challenge was maintaining a positive attitude among employees, Armstrong said.

With less business, employees were scheduled less and suffered losses from tips, but were able to get through it, he said.

Hartley said business at Rally’s suffered because most people typically tried to avoid the area in the thick of construction.

While the lanes have begun to open up and the normal flow of traffic has returned, Pollick said commuters can expect intermittent lane restrictions as crews finish curbing, striping and signaling work. However, the orange barrels should be removed by next week, she said.

Striping and signaling work will continue throughout the spring and winter, Pollick said.