{"id":146043,"date":"2026-01-23T08:21:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:21:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/146043\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T08:21:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T08:21:30","slug":"h-street-construction-worries-local-business-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/146043\/","title":{"rendered":"H Street construction worries local business owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Major changes are coming to H Street this spring as construction begins on the highly anticipated improvement project, but some business owners warn the overhaul could make traffic even worse.<\/p>\n

Gerardo Nieves, owner of Panecito y Caf\u00e9 located on H Street and Brundage Lane, says he’s worried about how the H Street improvement project could affect his business that he opened nine days ago.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s going to affect us because it will be hard for customers to come to our store,” Nieves said.<\/p>\n

Although he just opened, Nieves says he’s already noticed traffic in the area without construction, but now he’s more concerned about lane closures.<\/p>\n

“I’m worried because when it’ll be a one lane each way there’s going to be more traffic. I mean right now there’s no construction and there’s already a lot of traffic,” Nieves said.<\/p>\n

The H Street improvement project<\/a> will add new street lighting, wider roads, roundabouts and bike lanes from Route 204 to Highway 58.<\/p>\n

Right across the street from Panecito y Caf\u00e9 is Maria’s Bridal Shop. Maria de la Luz Inguanzo opened her store 20 years ago and says recently there’s been more traffic in the area.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had customers tell me that they’re already struggling to get here or they can’t find parking so we’re already struggling with that,” Inguanzo said.<\/p>\n

Inguanzo says she’s already planning for when there’s a reduction in lanes in front of her store.<\/p>\n

“Extend our store hours so my clients can still come and avoid the construction area,” Inguanzo said.<\/p>\n

The city did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Council Member Andrae Gonzales sent a statement that reads: “I’m very concerned to hear that business and property owners have not been better included in the design of H Street. City Hall must do a better job, and I cannot support any movement forward until we address the concerns of all stakeholders.”<\/p>\n

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n

Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 Major changes are coming to H Street this spring as construction begins on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146044,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,155,153,152,72791,72788,162,72789,72790],"class_list":{"0":"post-146043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bakersfield","8":"tag-bakersfield","9":"tag-bakersfield-downtown","10":"tag-bakersfield-headlines","11":"tag-bakersfield-news","12":"tag-construction-traffic","13":"tag-h-street-improvement-project","14":"tag-kern-county-news","15":"tag-marias-bridal-shop","16":"tag-panecito-y-cafe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}