Perhaps you are like me and the last few summers of roadwork have conditioned you to travel south Iowa Street only by drone. Well, if you haven’t been on the busy street for awhile, there are lots of changes happening along the roadway. We’ve reported on the projects in the past, but here’s an update on several:

• Yet another reason to get the spurs out of the closet: Construction has started on a new Texas Roadhouse restaurant. We reported in September that Texas Roadhouse had filed plans to build a new restaurant on the former site of Saints Pub + Patio near 23rd and Iowa street. Then the project became a bit like a Texas Longhorn football season: Much anticipation without much sign of progress. (Yes, it does take a certain amount of fortitude as a Jayhawk to make jokes about other football teams.) But construction work is now well underway. Here’s a look at the construction scene and also a rendering of what the finished product will be, according to plans filed with the city.

Courtesy: City of Lawrence

• Of course those are fried chicken crumbs in my whiskers. But now there’s a different brand of crumbs in there. Yes, Raising Cane’s has opened its restaurant at 2435 Iowa St. In case you have forgotten, the restaurant specializes in chicken fingers, french fries and some type of special dipping sauce. The restaurant had a crowd of folks waiting outside this morning as part of some promotion where a limited number of people get free chicken for a year, or something like that.

• We are equal opportunity here when it comes to fried chicken, so I am now obligated to provide you an update on Popeyes, which is building its first Lawrence location at 26th and Iowa streets. The exterior of the store looks pretty much complete, but I would say an opening is more than a few days away. It appears concrete for the parking lot hasn’t been poured yet.

• Let’s not forget about pizza. It’s such an under appreciated food source in this university community. Well, a new pizza place has opened on south Iowa. As we reported in January, the pizza chain Pie Five planned to locate at 2500 Iowa St., which is the office building just north of the Applebee’s. Well, that renovation is complete, and the pizza shop opened on Friday. The restaurant’s calling card is that it will make a handmade pizza in five minutes.

• In between Popeyes and Pie Five is the Tower Plaza shopping center that houses First Watch and several other businesses. As we have reported, it was scheduled to receive a facelift. That facelift now is largely complete. The center does have a cleaner look to it these days. Look for one new restaurant to open in that center soon. The sandwich chain Which Wich has a sign in its window saying it is now hiring. A look in the window indicated most of the work on that new restaurant is largely complete.

• With all these new restaurants, I don’t know when we would ever find the time to go the gym, but work is progressing on the Planet Fitness facility that is going into the old Discovery Furniture building at 25th and Iowa streets.

Greg Henson, the managing partner for the gym, said the project is on track to open in mid-June. Henson said 40-flat screen TVs just arrived for the gym, and ultimately the 22,000 square-foot facility will have about 50 treadmills, 25 elliptical machines, 10 bikes, and other pieces of cardio and weight equipment. You perhaps have seen activity at the site that leads you to believe the facility open. It is not, although it has an office that is open for membership sales.

As for the forecast for summer roadwork on Iowa Street, we did have an update on that too. Construction work is underway near 27th and Iowa streets to replace a waterline. That work, which has one northbound lane closed near the intersection, is scheduled to last until June 12. The street then will fully reopen for a bit until a repaving project from 24th to 29th streets gets underway in July.

I hope the drone can carry the extra chicken weight.

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