Dozens of Denver Harbor shops and restaurants are back in business after a long year in which their sales were hampered by a nearby road project.

Many business owners attended the grand re-opening of Key Road Tuesday – an event they say couldn’t have come soon enough.

Restaurant owner Antonio Aguirre said the construction was so bad few customers, if any, would walk through his door.

He said his sales dropped by more than half because of the road work.

It was an expensive consequence for the year-long improvement project.

But some businesses along Lyons Avenue paid an even higher cost.

“It tore up his parking area so there was nowhere that his customers could park and of course they had to go somewhere else to do their business, and it got to the point where he just closed it,” longtime area resident Dario M. Arellano said of one former business owner.

Fortunately, patience has paid off for many.

Now they have spanking new paved roads, bike lanes and green areas to mow.

“Things are now completed, and now we are hoping for the best,” Arellano said.

Most of all, they’re hoping the new road will bring back the old customers.