At last, one of L.A.’s traffic nightmares is about to end.

The two-year Santa Monica Boulevard reconstruction project through West Hollywood is due to wrap up this month, with a street festival dedication set for Aug. 19 to mark the event.

The $34 million project tore up a 2.8-mile stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard connecting Beverly Hills with Hollywood.

As of last week, the eastern half of the street was virtually done, with only touch-up work to sidewalks and medians left. The stretch between Doheny Drive and La Cienega Boulevard still needs a final repaving, which will be done over the next three weeks.

“This was a project of mind-boggling dimensions for a city the size of West Hollywood,” said West Hollywood City Councilman Steve Martin. Back in the mid-1990s, Martin and other city leaders grew increasingly frustrated with the slow pace of work by the California Department of Transportation on the state-owned road and decided to take the project into their own hands.

Santa Monica Boulevard had deteriorated to such an extent that layers of soil beneath the road had to be stripped away, revealing old rail lines that hadn’t been used in 50 years. Complicating matters was the widening of the Holly Hills storm drain, which cut right through the middle of the project.

A big concern was over the impact on businesses that line the street. The city spent nearly $2 million on business-support measures, including a new marketing program.

City officials and local business leaders acknowledge that a few businesses went under, but not as many as originally feared. “This street has always been subject to high rates of business turnover, and we have not observed a spike of closures during the construction,” said West Hollywood City Manager Paul Arevalo.

Sales tax receipts along Santa Monica Boulevard actually increased between 5 percent and 10 percent during the construction period, said Arevalo.

That’s little consolation to one business owner, who says her revenues have gone down 40 percent in the last two years, to about $500,000 a year. “It’s been very disappointing to watch a business I have built up over 14 years wither away before my eyes,” said Mary Gonsalves, owner of Postal Center and More on Santa Monica Boulevard near Crescent Heights Boulevard.

Making matters worse, Gonsalves said, is that the project is wrapping up in the midst of an economic slowdown, making it hard to recoup costs.