ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The city of St. Petersburg is putting the finishing touches on a big overhaul of one of its busiest roads: Central Avenue.

The goal of the project is to make the road safer for drivers and pedestrians while also including some aesthetic improvements as well.

If there’s one thing that restaurant owner Roman Voloshyn has noticed lately on Central Ave: It’s a lot less noisy.

“There is no craziness. There is no racing anymore. It’s much quieter. The traffic is lighter,” said Voloshyn, who owns the Pierogi Bar on Central Ave.

That’s because the city is finishing its West Central Avenue Streetscape Project, from Park Street to 58th Street.

New medians and crosswalks have helped slow traffic down.

Before that, the city’s engineering director, Brejesh Preyman, says that traffic studies showed a lot of speeding.

“We even got one or two vehicles that were traveling at 80 MPH,” Preyman said.

That’s something Voloshyn worried about for years at the Pierogi Bar.  

“They’d be driving like crazy. They would take off from Central and Pasadena and they would just go to the next light,” Voloshyn said.

Speed is one of the major reasons the city went forward with this project.

They also wanted to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists, by building new sidewalks and adding green pavement markings.

“It really sets the entrance to the community, as well as St. Petersburg as a whole, and also enhances the business districts,” Preyman said.

The project also includes some new landscaping in the medians.

The city first started planning this project in 2017.

One of the reasons it took a while to complete is that crews also installed a new water main on Central Avenue.

Voloshyn feels the changes are already helping with his business and customer safety.

“It will bring the people in because there is less noise from the cars. Before that, we had a lot of motorcycles and we had a lot of big trucks with horns. I don’t see that or hear that anymore,” Voloshyn said.