Businesses owners in the southwest part of Detroit are looking forward to the completion of the city's latest streetscape construction project — for more than one reason.

A resurfacing of Bagley Street between 24th Street and the West Fisher Service Drive began two weeks ago, closing off two blocks of a main Mexicantown commercial strip to vehicle traffic. At the same time, there are disruptions on the business-dense Vernor Street as crews update lighting on a stretch of road that leads up to Michigan Central Station.

The bulk of work on both projects is expected to be done by the end of November, said Caitlin Marcon, deputy director of the complete streets division in the city's department of public works. Although the timeline for this project is shorter than the one on the Livernois Avenue of Fashion, restaurant and shop owners are still worried about lost sales.

"The street is a mess now. The customers are complaining already," said Diana Cooley, co-owner of Evie's Tamales, a longtime staple of the neighborhood located in the thick of construction. "There's nothing I can do, unless I go out there and help."

The two biggest complaints — parking and accessibility — are no surprise for the city, which is working to apply lessons learned from the Livernois project that had a rougher-than-expected start. There are plans to place signs, in English and Spanish, around the area later this week to let people know that businesses remain open, said Arthur Jemison, chief of services and infrastructure for the city. Crews are also required to maintain pedestrian access to all businesses.

In addition, to help make up for the approximately 40 on-street parking spaces eliminated by construction, the city struck a deal with the owner of restaurant El Zocalo, who is letting the city use one of its empty lots free of charge for 30 or so public parking spaces, Marcon said. Officials say they will continue to meet weekly with the business owners to gauge what else must be done.

"If we can get people through this part of construction, they're gonna have a much-improved selling space and hopefully they'll be able to do more business next year," Jemison said.

The $5.4 million streetscape projects involve making Bagley a more festival-friendly shared street and extending decorative lighting on Vernor to tap into the energy Ford Motor Co. is creating at the train station. The Bagley work is just a road resurfacing, as opposed to a rebuild like on Livernois, and the Vernor piece involves mainly new light poles with some sections of sidewalk being repoured.

Businesses on both stretches remain open and accessible during construction, according to the city.