This time last week the corner of east Cesar Chavez Street and Mildred Street in southeast Austin was reduced to a huge hole in the ground.
As of this weekend the "hole" thing is gone.
But that doesn't mean that drivers, homeowners, and business owners along that busy stretch are on easy street just yet.
The huge pothole was filled as of 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Now people are driving by and Juan Meza, owner of the popular eatery Juan in a Million, said he wishes more people were stopping by.
"You would think that ,'Well, everything is back to normal, customers are going to just forget about that the hole ever existed and they are going to be back,' like a normal thing, but it hasn't happened that way," Meza said.
"The city took a very, very proactive approach making sure that the customers were inconvenienced as little as possible," said construction inspector Simon Orta. Orta said weather and prior pipe deterioration caused the flood and hole last weekend, not contractor error from work done at the corner last month.
The city staff is proud of how fast they fixed what could have been a huge ongoing problem. The ground is known as "sugar sand" and can be difficult to work with.
"Exposed to the weather, exposed to rain or water it destabilizes it really quick. The city takes very special care in making sure that we replace it in the proper manner," Orta said.
Work included doing continued tests on the new asphalt and core evaluations below the surface later this week to check on the stability of the pavement.
Cesar Chavez Street is up and operational, however how about the northbound and southbound lanes of Mildred Street?
City staff said there is still work to be done on that, so there could be a few roadblocks ahead. As a business owner Juan understands that progress on road improvements are necessary.
But if you're looking for support for future projects, he is not the "Juan."
"I don't understand that. Somebody dropped the ball. Either the contractor or the city inspectors. So if somebody is dropping the ball here we are losing business," said Meza.
Orta said city officials will meet Tuesday about exactly what to do about Mildred Street.
But, preliminarily, they said they hope to have the road between Willow Street the next road just south of Cesar Chavez reinforced and reconstructed within the next three weeks.
