HAMBURG, N.Y. — After a drive or walk through the Village of Hamburg, you can tell there's a lot happening -- especially, in the summer.
"With the festivals though and the fact that we've got more and more businesses going on here, as far as eateries and everything, it's become a destination," said Norm Zintz, the Burgerfest Food Chairman.
On a normal Friday, the traffic is already pretty heavy.
However that's amplified every summer with major events happening in the village or nearby; for example, the Eden Corn Festival, the Erie County Fair and the Hamburg Burgerfest.
"On a sunny day, we will get close to 30,000 or better. If it rains a little bit, we'll drop down to 25," said Sue Ganey, the President of VBAC President and the Burgerfest Vendor Coordinator.
The traffic situation through the village will soon get a little more complicated.
Beginning Wednesday through mid-August, the Hamburg bridge on East Eden Road, about 500 feet south of the traffic circle on South Buffalo Street, will be under construction.
A spokesperson with the Erie County Department of Public Works told us in a written statement,
"The bridge is only a two-girder bridge, which leaves no redundancy while cross members are replaced, therefore the traffic restriction. The steel repairs are all of a preventive maintenance to give an additional 25 years of service life."
The statement went onto say, "There will be inconveniences for residents of Hamburg and Eden and visitors to those communities, but the end result will be significant infrastructure improvements.”
County officials chose the summer in part because school is out and because of the weather.
The hope is that by opening day of the fair, crews will be able to reopen the roadway.
Nonetheless, for the Burgerfest, those in charge are already planning for damage control.
Ganey explained, "We'll probably have to have more traffic control than we've had in the past. The Boy Scouts help us out and do a phenomenal job and we appreciate that and our club members come from the Kiwanis Club and they work traffic. We'll just have to double up on our resources."
"We'll get them in from the outskirts of town and they can walk the block or so and as long as the weather's good, everyone's gonna be happy," Zintz added.