On the Fast Track: City reports construction project moving swiftly

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Reaching the halfway mark until completion, construction on South Limestone is ahead of schedule.

Streetscape project manager George Milligan said the city has completed all of the sanitary and sewer portions of the job and is working on the foundation for overhead utilities.

“We are opening one lane in the evening, usually around 5 p.m.,” Milligan said.

The cold weather has prevented the workers from doing concrete work, but Milligan said if the weather rises above freezing temperatures they will continue with concrete work soon.

Even with one lane of traffic, however, some businesses along the construction trail still feel they are losing customers to the mess.

Isaac Kurs, one of the owners of Soundbar on South Limestone, said when neighboring businesses suffer it means less foot traffic for his bar.

“When the construction started (foot traffic) practically came to a complete halt,” Kurs said. “Not being able to draw traffic from the street hurt us. We have to work twice as hard to attract customers.”

Besides the closing of the street, Kurs said he ran into a problem with the construction equipment being parked directly in front of his bar. In the two days it took to get the equipment moved, Kurs said he saw a 50 percent decrease in business for those nights.

“If I were to see construction trucks parked right in front of a bar, that would probably discourage me from going in,” he said. “So there is still a little bit of disregard (for the businesses).”

Beth Hanna, owner of Hanna’s on Lime, feels that same disregard concerning parking spaces. Although she thinks opening the one lane will be helpful, there is still no street parking on that portion of South Limestone. Even when the project is completed, Hanna said she will lose the only two parking spaces in front of her restaurant to a bike lane.

“A lot of my elderly customers used those spaces, so I’m losing them (as customers),” she said.

While the past six months have been disruptive, Hanna said, she is sure the project will finish ahead of schedule.

“They are a little bit ahead of the game … but until the weather breaks they can’t start pouring and rebuilding the sidewalks,” Hanna said. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

While Milligan said the construction plans are moving along, Kurs said local businesses are just trying to survive another six months.

“We’re trying to give people a good enough reason to come through all this mess,” he said.