It's been a long and drawn out process but for business owners operating at the cul-de-sac of John Marshall Highway, the first sign of relief showed itself this week.

On Tuesday, the Board of County Supervisors approved of a name change to the southern end part of John Marshall Highway, better known at Route 55, that starts at the intersection of Gallerher Road and ends where construction debris dead-ends the road before it hits U.S. 29 next to Interstate 66.

The new road name is Dave's Store Lane. According to Scott Chambers, a senior aide to Gainesville District supervisor John Stirrup (R), a VDOT regulation requires the road to be named before signs can be properly placed.

"As soon as that road segment gets renamed, we can start moving ahead... as far as directing people to the new intersection and then, also, (the Zoning department) has said they would be able to put up new temporary signage up on their buildings, but they do need to go to the Zoning department first to get that," he said.

Joe's Italian Restaurant owner Mahmood "Moe" Ahmed discussed problems the cul-de-sacking of Route 55 caused his restaurant for a story that appeared in The Gainesville Times three months ago. Since then, both the county, local business owners and VDOT have made progress but problems linger.

For instance, after VDOT took the right-of-way near his restaurant on the western side of U.S. 29, Ahmed could no longer have signs in that area. That limited his ability to advertise his business or even direct traffic onto Gallerher Road in order for drivers to find the only access point to his part of Route 55.

So, according to Ahmed, he planted an 18x24-inch sign in the right-of-way. Chambers described the sign as a "popsicle sign," one in which the stake that holds it in the ground is in the shape of a popsicle stick.

That ended up earning Ahmed a $200 fine, half of which was assigned to VDOT and half to the county. Chambers said after Ahmed met with Stirrup, his office was able to drop the county's portion of the fine but Ahmed still owed $100 to VDOT as of earlier this month.

"If I don't put signs up, how am I going to get the customers?" asked the business owner.

He said that since the road closure, "business has been going down and down." Dining inside the restaurant has slowed dramatically, with overall sales dropping by at least 30 percent since the fall, according to Ahmed. Delivery orders are now sustaining his business.

"I cannot survive when I'm not making money," he said. "Just this year, I'm going to stay, see how it goes in the summer time. But I know it's tough."

Ahmed said he is hoping that once construction work starts on the road, lunch time business will increase at Joe's among the construction crews. Since the fall, he's upped his coupon deals and he said he thinks that local residents may be more willing to spend more money soon.

"So I hope it'll pick it up next month because a lot of people are just waiting for the (tax) refunds, so I'm hoping, March and April, (I'll get) some extra business but right now it's not doing anything," said Ahmed.