Students had to dodge traffic obstacles in Ames as two major road-construction projects have made a maze out of Lincoln Way, one of the city’s busiest streets.

Paul Wiegand, director of public works for the city of Ames, said it was impossible for crews to finish the construction before students moved back to the city.

“We started the day after classes were out,” he said.

Wiegand said the larger of the two projects, a $3.2-million reconstruction of the Lincoln Way-Grand Avenue intersection, is projected to be finished by the end of October.

“It will create a dual left-turn lane from eastbound Lincoln Way to northbound Grand [Avenue] and a left-turning lane from westbound Lincoln Way to southbound Grand [Avenue],” he said.

Wiegand said the construction will also make shopping in the area more accessible.

“We’re also extending [Grand Avenue] to the south to serve the Lincoln Center Shopping Center,” he said.

Monte Stereit, general manager for the Lincoln Center Hy-Vee, 340 Lincoln Way, said the construction has had a negative effect on business, but he would not estimate to what degree the store would suffer.

“It did have somewhat of an effect,” he said. “It’s a project that needs to be finished.”

Stereit said business has been slower, but the “city did a good job putting signs up so people could find their way around.”

He said he is looking forward to the construction being finished because the congestion will be cleared up and the new extension of Grand Avenue will provide an easy entrance.

The second of the two projects involves running a new water main down Lincoln Way from Squaw Creek Drive to Oak Avenue.

Wiegand said the water-main project will only affect one east-bound lane on Lincoln Way from Grand Avenue to Beach Avenue.

He said the $500,000 project should be completed by early November.