While businesses are glad the bridge will open ahead of the holiday season, a number noted that they didn't see a big drop in customer traffic during the past six months. (650 CKOM file photo)

Broadway business excited as end of bridge construction nears

By Will Mandzuk Oct 6, 2025 | 8:41 AM

The end of a major construction project on the Broadway Bridge in Saskatoon is finally in sight.

The 93-year-old bridge has been closed since May while it undergoes a rehabilitation. While no exact date for reopening has been provided, the City of Saskatoon said the project is on track to be completed at the end of October.

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The reopening will be welcomed as businesses along Broadway Avenue as they prepare for the holiday shopping season, but several business noted that the closure didn’t translate into a big drop in business.

“It would have been nice if they had opened it right as October started,” said Heather Woytowich, a treasurer and artist at Juniper and Oak Consignments.

“It’ll be massively important, especially as people are getting their holiday shopping done.”

Woytowich said businesses are breathing a sigh of relief, as the holiday season is quickly approaching.

“Similar to other retail businesses, most of our sales happen from October to December,” said Woytowich. “It will be probably a big relief once more drivers are coming through and thinking ‘Maybe I’ll stop.’”

Despite all the hurdles and construction around Broadway Avenue, Woytowich said she didn’t notice a big drop in customer traffic.

“It was surprisingly OK,” she said.

“Once things got going there was certainly a reduction in foot traffic for a while, but Broadway (Business Improvement District) did a lot to bring people over.”

Woytowich said the business improvement district sat down, listened to businesses and worked to address their worries.

“They’ve been super receptive to anyone’s concerns,” she said. “They have been trying everything. They did gallery tours; they did a digital gallery tour of businesses on Broadway.”

The Fringe Festival and the Broadway Street Fair also helped deliver more foot traffic to Broadway Avenue during the summer, something all the businesses were thankful for.

“It does bring extra interest,” Woytowich said. “I think people save up their wandering time and their shopping time for those kinds of events.”

Ultimately, Woytowich said there wasn’t a noticeable change in business for Juniper and Oak Consignments.

“We didn’t see a huge dip in our business,” she said. “I know some businesses were struggling, but we were doing OK.”

“We didn’t really see a difference,” said Alex Pozsonyi, of Soul Paper, another Broadway business.

“We’ve only been here (for one) year, and we went through two years of the (Sid) Buckwold Bridge being closed down when we were on 20th street.”

Pozsonyi said the disruption to Saskatoon Transit was one of the most challenging aspects of the bridge closure.

“The most painful part for us was probably having no buses running,” Pozsonyi said. “We had a lot of clientele saying that was the primary issue trying to get here.”

But while bus traffic was slowed, Pozsonyi said he noticed that the construction didn’t seem to slow down the summer tourist season.

Pozsonyi having the bridge open again for the holiday season will benefit businesses, as public transportation returns to its normal routes.

“I think it’s really going to help, especially with buses running again,” he said. “To have the rest of the population be able to have access to Broadway, that’s the key.”