If you've driven from the west side of Apex toward Salem Street this year, you already know the drill: down Olive Chapel, over to Williams Street, then onto Salem itself, the same street that's been squeezed into one lane since January. That's not a coincidence of bad planning. It's the official detour for a completely different road closure, and it happens to dump traffic straight into the middle of the one downtown is still working through.
Most of what's been written about downtown Apex this year treats the Salem Streetscape project as the whole story: one road, one construction crew, one finish line sometime in the fall. But there's a second project running at the same time, on a different street, with its own separate timeline, and the two share a detour route. That overlap is the reason a Saturday morning coffee run has felt different all summer, and it's the reason fall probably won't feel like a reset even after the streetscape ribbon gets cut.
Two Projects, One Shared Street
The Salem Streetscape project is the one everyone in town has heard about. The construction contract runs January through December 2026. Work began in January, and North Salem Street has been restricted to one-way traffic from Saunders Street to West Chatham Street for months. The town put real money behind it: Apex committed more than $4.7 million to transform North Salem Street with new walkways, lighting, trees and pedestrian-friendly design. When it wraps, the plan includes a new Saunders Street Gathering Space with pergolas, seating, outdoor games, and a digital information kiosk.
The timeline has already slipped once. Design changes tied to electrical work paused the project for several weeks this spring, and business owners along Salem Street have felt it directly. Steven Perticona, a manager at Anna's Pizzeria, put a number on it in April:
"We're tracking down anywhere from 10 to 20%," said Steven Perticona, a manager at Anna's Pizzeria, describing the drop in foot traffic and sales.
Despite the pause, town leadership held the line on the schedule. Mayor Jacques Gilbert said the project remained on track to be completed by October, with two-way traffic returning at that time. Physical construction was anticipated to begin in February and wrap up in October.
Here's the part that gets left out of most updates. A few blocks away, the Apex Peakway is dealing with its own closure, and it's not the same project at all. Apex Peakway will remain closed from S. Salem Street to Towhee Drive until summer 2026, work that's necessary to build the connector road ahead of a new Peakway bridge over Salem Street and the CSX railroad. And here's where the two projects meet: traffic detoured off the closed Peakway is routed along Olive Chapel Road, Williams Street, and Salem Street.
Read that again. The detour for the Peakway closure ends on the exact stretch of Salem Street that the streetscape project has already narrowed to one lane. Two supposedly separate construction projects are compounding each other on the same 200 yards of pavement.
| Project | What's closed | Detour route | Town's target finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salem Streetscape | Salem St, one-way southbound, Saunders to W. Chatham | Saunders, Elm, Moore, Seaboard for downtown access | October 2026 |
| Peakway SW Connector | Apex Peakway, S. Salem St to Towhee Dr | Olive Chapel Rd, Williams St, Salem St | Listed as "until summer 2026," no firm date |
Why the West Side Won the Summer
This is the mechanism behind something a lot of residents have noticed without quite naming it: downtown traffic thinning out during the day while Sweetwater Town Center and the roads around Pleasant Park stay busy. It's not that people stopped liking Salem Street. It's that anyone coming from the west side now has to choose between fighting a narrowed one-way street or just staying put on the side of town where the detour already lands them.
Business decisions this year back that up. Foxtail Coffee Co. opened a second Apex location this year at 1451 Richardson Road in the growing Sweetwater Town Center, after its first store near downtown. That's a company betting that west-side demand is durable enough to justify a second build-out in the same small town, in the same year, while downtown traffic is depressed.
None of this means downtown is struggling across the board. It means the town has been actively working to offset the construction drag while it lasts. The recent Saunders Lot expansion added 152 new parking spaces right in the heart of downtown, a 40 percent increase in overall parking capacity. The town has also leaned on a simple, honest pitch to keep dollars local: about 67 cents of every dollar spent locally stays in Apex, strengthening other businesses and supporting local job growth. That message matters more when you consider the scale of what's at stake downtown: Apex counts 132 diverse local businesses downtown, from coffee shops and restaurants to boutiques, salons, and wellness spots.
Fall's Calendar Still Lives on Salem Street, Mostly
Here's where it gets useful if you're planning your fall around this. Downtown's social district program hasn't skipped a beat during construction. The Local Spot Passport returns and runs through September 7th, 2026, letting visitors grab a to-go drink and stroll the designated outdoor areas while browsing shops. That gives you a few more weekends to use it before it wraps around Labor Day.
Two of the season's biggest street events are also downtown fixtures. Festa Italiana runs the third Saturday in September, which lands on September 19 this year. Later that month, the Apex Latino Arts Festival, also held downtown, celebrates the town's Latino community by highlighting Latino arts and culture in late September.
Both of those festivals traditionally use Salem Street itself. Given everything above, that's worth a second thought before you pencil in an address. The town has already shown it will move a signature event rather than force it through active construction. PeakFest was relocated to Hunter Street and the Town Hall Campus for 2026 specifically because of the Salem Streetscape construction. If the streetscape's finishing work runs long again the way it did this spring, don't be surprised if a fall festival gets the same treatment. Check the town's calendar close to the date rather than assuming Salem Street is the venue by default.
Where the New Openings Are Placing Their Bets
The restaurant openings this year read almost like a hedge against the uncertainty above, split roughly down the middle between downtown and the west side.
On Salem Street itself, Popovers Cafe had its grand opening at 219 N. Salem Street, with owners Mustafa and Juliette Ozturk serving sweet and savory popover pastries. That's a business willing to open in the middle of a construction zone, betting the October finish line holds.
On the west side, the newer names are landing closer to Sweetwater and the Peakway corridor. Kaara Indian Restaurant opened at 2700 Stokesdale Avenue with modern Indian fine dining, two dining halls, a private room, a patio, and a full bar. Not far away, Lime & Lemon Restaurant & Lounge is opening at 2025 Creekside Landing Drive, pairing a premium Indian restaurant with a separate late-night lounge that has its own entrance.
Two openings downtown, two out west, one coffee brand covering both. Nobody in this town is assuming the map snaps back to the way it looked in 2025.
The Practical Read for the Rest of the Year
If you live in Apex, the honest planning advice is this: treat downtown as a place you're still routing around rather than through, at least until you see two-way traffic actually running on Salem Street, not just a press release saying it's coming. The Peakway's own reopening date has been described only as "until summer 2026" with no firmer commitment attached, which means the detour that funnels traffic onto Salem Street could easily still be active after the streetscape work wraps. Two finish lines, moving independently, sharing one stretch of road. That's the reason this fall in Apex is going to feel like an extension of the summer you just had, not a clean break from it.
Whether you're watching this because you're curious about your own neighborhood or because you're thinking further ahead about a move within Apex or the wider Triangle, having a clear read on how a town's infrastructure actually behaves, not just what the press releases promise, is exactly the kind of local groundwork Live Raleigh does for clients every day. If you'd like to talk through what any of this means for your own plans, Let's Connect — Schedule a Free Consultation.
