Project switches lanes
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on March 26, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
From left, Sherrod Harvin helps David Lewis, T.A. Loving job superintendent, move the road closed signs from the southbound to the northbound lane this morning. Lewis says he expects a learning curve for people with the new traffic pattern.
Streetscape, the downtown street renovation project that has been going on since August, will switch construction from the southbound to the northbound lane of Center Street today.
Traffic patterns will switch as well while construction occurs simultaneously on each block of the northbound lane, Assistant City Manager Randy Guthrie said.
"We were thinking of making it a two-way traffic pattern, but decided to mark it how it will be when it's all finished," he said. "It'll be one way (on the southbound side) and (all three blocks of) the northbound lane will be closed."
Traffic looking to loop around Center Street to access businesses on the northbound side will need to come up James or John streets and access public parking from John Street or Chestnut Street.
"We've laid a temporary top coat of asphalt on that side and will come back at the end and put down the final coat," Guthrie said.
Sidewalks in front of businesses on the northbound side will remain open -- but businesses on that side of the street say they have already been feeling the squeeze from the construction.
"We've already lost about 60 percent of our walk-in business just from the construction happening on the opposite side," said Shawn Lindow with Aerus Electrolux at 156 S. Center St. "So we're estimating once it switches to this side we'll lose about 80 percent of our walk-in business."
Lindow said the business is attempting to combat the loss of walk-in customers by doing in-home demonstrations and repairs on the products it sells.
Ruth and David Glisson with Uniquely R's at 135 S. Center St. said construction had been rough for business while it happened on their side of the street, but weren't sure if it was because they were a young, small business, or because of Streetscape.
"We heard a lot of people say it was just too hard to get to us with all the construction going on," Mrs. Glisson said. "Parking on our side was bad, and we'll still have difficulties when it switches, but we are hoping it will be much easier on businesses on the other side of the street."
She said "die-hard" supporters of their business kept them going, and braved winter weather and construction to make the trip anyway.
"We are ridiculously excited that our sidewalk and our side of the street will be open again," she said. "(The construction companies) went out of their way to be accommodating to our business hours while they were doing construction. We love the finished product."
One business owner, who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of her comments, said she felt like her business had been left out to dry by the city during the construction.
"Several businesses have already had to close their doors during all of this," she said. "We've already had customers saying how hard it is to get to our business. You know, the city preaches how much they support and love downtown, but we haven't had a single person from the city come in here and buy anything from us during the construction."
The business owner said she has been part of multiple downtown revitalization efforts in various cities and Goldsboro is the first place where the city did not take the initiative to help businesses stay alive during revitalization efforts.
"Past places have given us some sort of financial support," she said. "The city says they'll put banners out for us, but then they say we have to pay for banners promoting our business. I feel like I'm totally on my own. City Hall needs to take more initiative and interest in supporting the businesses that are already here."
Antonio Williams with The Ice Storm at 116 S. Center St. said he and his partner, Yvonnia Moore, are doing all they can to ride out the construction.
"It's already been rough," Williams said. "We're just going to try and ride the tide. It won't be easy, but the end result will be great."
Williams said The Ice Storm will offer curbside service to customers who call in orders, and will walk orders to customers' cars if they pull up to the corners of the street.
"The construction is occurring during our peak season. It will be rewarding in the long-term, but we'll keep rolling with the punches for now," Williams said. "To the community: Please come support us and help us survive the construction."