Main Street in Flowery Branch is now entirely open.

Since last year, the road had been torn up for improvements in different segments — first between Railroad Avenue and Church Street and then between Church Street and Mitchell Street.

The entire stretch, including up to Gainesville Street, is now drivable, with Main Street now serving as a one-way street between Railroad and Mitchell.

A top coat still needs to be applied between Railroad and Church, and workers are finishing up sidewalk work along that stretch.

When completely done, the fixes will include a new driving surface, widened sidewalks, new trees and new parking spaces. 

Over the past year, downtown businesses logged the progress on social media and reminded readers of their operating hours.

Janet Upchurch, longtime owner of Sample Pleasures Art, Antiques and Gifts at the corner of Main and Railroad, has watched the project from start to finish.

"We will all be thankful when it is done and downtown thrives again,” she said earlier this month.

The Main Street work is part of a larger makeover of public areas in the downtown area that Renee Carden, the city’s downtown events coordinator, has said she hopes will be finished by May 1.

The city is looking to add much-needed parking, especially with the city’s popular festivals and farmer’s market, and wider sidewalks to allow for outside dining. Also, in a unique touch, the city is converting Church Street between Main and West Pine streets into a “woonerf,” or a “living street” that mixes both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Church Street intersections at Main and West Pine streets also now feature Flowery Branch’s blossom logo embedded in concrete on the driving surface.

The city also has added a new covered pavilion for the farmers’ market off Railroad and an amphitheater off Church Street.