Local business owners in Country Club Plaza are worried about lack of customers with the new twinning project closing down 68th Avenue for construction. Business Owner Richard Ames says this has happened before with construction in 2010 and he doesn’t want to see it happen again.
“Even though there was access into the plaza, the decrease in the amount of traffic that flows through the area is affecting the business. A lot of the businesses in the plaza are on my way home or on my way to work type of businesses”
A letter written to the other business owners in the plaza explains the 2010 construction between Poplar Drive and Resources Road.
Ames says businesses in the area are already seeing harder times due to the economy and this might push them over the edge. He would like to see the city and contractor work proactively to make signs to divert traffic to area so they do not miss out on customers they would have had.
City Construction Manager Matt Hinton says with the closure of the road, it is easier for the contractor to do the work.
“We will talk to the contractor to see if there are any ways to mitigate the road closure or possibly try and allow traffic to go through. We have to work with the contractor to see if there are any possibilities of that ”
He says there are detours available to make it easy for drivers. Detours are planned eastbound along 68th Ave to go north along 102nd Ave or 104th Ave you can take a right over to Resources Road. The other way is south at 100th Street and at 63rd Ave east.
The construction on that project will begin Monday and go until August.