Sam Huerta appreciates the traffic on McKinley Street outside his restaurant, because his livelihood depends on it. He owns Mariscolandia, the very definition of a family owned business.

“My brother comes in one day a week, I got a daughter also working with me, and a son,” Huerta said.

However, that very same traffic Huerta relies on is the reason the city plans to build a bridge over a nearby railroad.

“It’s a conflict between the railroad and high significant traffic,” said Nelson Nelson of the City of Corona Public Works Department.

The city says this isn’t just a convenience issue, but more importantly, a safety one.

“It makes it difficult for first responders to get through the area when the gates are down. Even when the gates are raised, it takes 30 minutes just for gates to clear out,” Nelson said.

It’s called the McKinley Grade Separation Project and it's set to be built from 2021 to 2023. It's a $90M project funded by SB 132, local assistance for the Riverside County Transportation Efficiency Corridor.

It will raise the street over the railroad so as to not bring traffic -- which goes through the railroad intersection -- to its usual standstill. It sounds simple, but not necessarily for Huerta and his business, which he says will be blocked by the bridge.

“We have a lot of customers on the other side of the street and they may not have time to come all the way around, and eventually we may end up losing them,” he said.

He says he can’t relocate as he’s still recovering from the economic crash of 2007.

The city says it's been sensitive to area businesses, and has proposed a bridge project that will be the first of its kind west of the Mississippi.

“They can build a bridge off-sight over period of a long time and in one weekend they can bring the bridge onto location,” Nelson said.

As Huerta rings up his customers, he holds onto the memories of his past and hopes for the future.

“For me to find another job would be hard and to make the money I was making here, I would probably end up selling where I live and downsize,” he said.

He's hoping the bridge will ease street traffic, just not his restaurant’s.