Five customers in 12 hours. That's what Bailey Family Catering saw on Wednesday, July 15, as two simultaneous road construction projects restrict traffic through downtown Madeira.

Camargo Road between Miami and Euclid avenues is down to one lane with no access from Miami Avenue while crews finish installing a new water main, add safety features, build sidewalks and resurface the street. The project's final phase runs through November. A block away, road and sidewalk reconstruction on Miami Avenue has narrowed that corridor to two lanes between Euclid and Camargo; the city has not set a completion date but expects work to continue into 2027.

"It gets complicated and it's not very easy for the general public to understand that they're allowed to come here," DeAnna Bailey-Sanchez, owner of Bailey Family Catering at 7896 Camargo Road, told WCPO. Bailey-Sanchez said the store drew just five customers after a full day open on July 15.

Down the block at Ali's Bar and Grill, 7820 Camargo Road, co-owner Alison Tepe-Guy said customers are telling her they'll come back when construction ends. Tepe-Guy, whose restaurant won the Spirit of Madeira award in 2022, called the lost traffic unsustainable and pleaded with residents to keep showing up.

City Manager Mike Norton-Smith acknowledged the strain but said the overlapping timelines are driven by grant deadlines attached to outside funding. The Miami Avenue streetscape contract alone is valued at $1,595,444.80, offset by a grant from the Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority, according to a city council agenda packet dated April 27, 2026. The city has secured more than $9 million in grant funding tied to its 2019 Comprehensive Plan, covering streetscape work on both corridors, McDonald Commons improvements and a planned promenade along Dawson Road, according to the city newsletter.

"Free money comes with strings and, unfortunately, one of the strings we're dealing with is deadlines," Norton-Smith told WCPO.

Bailey Family Catering posted on Facebook on Thursday, July 16, urging shoppers not to let the barrels deter them. The BFC Market remains open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Ali's Bar and Grill is also open for regular hours at 7820 Camargo Road.