When construction started on Madison Avenue in Greenwood earlier this month, one local business noticed an immediate drop in the number of customers.
Concerned customers — including regulars — kept calling to check if Walt’s Barber Shop was open, owner Elizabeth Groth said. And in one day, she had a 75 percent drop in customers, she said.
The issue was with traffic barrels put up for the $12.5 million construction project that were blocking the entrance to her business at 105 S. Madison Ave., which left customers thinking she was closed.
Groth called the city, who quickly spoke with construction workers, and the barrels and signs have been re-arranged or removed and business is back to normal for now.
“Issues have come up, but the city has been responsive,” Groth said.
For some businesses operating along the section of Madison Avenue between Pearl and Noble streets, the beginning of construction season means concerns about fewer customers visiting their shops or dining at their restaurants during the next six months.
City officials say they are doing their best to address those concerns, whether that is making sure construction cones and signs aren’t blocking entrances, posting on social media that businesses in the area are still open or planning the construction so that vehicles will be able to drive through Madison Avenue throughout the course of the work.
Work on a rebuild of Madison Avenue in Greenwood began earlier this month with the first phase of construction, a $2 million project set to continue through September. The city anticipates spending a total of about $12.5 million rebuilding Madison Avenue from Smith Valley Road — where a new roundabout is being constructed this summer — to County Line Road.
City officials say the project is necessary to improve traffic flow and make the area more pedestrian friendly, and that the millions of dollars in improvements to downtown Greenwood along Madison Avenue and elsewhere will spur economic development in coming years.
Besides tearing out and rebuilding the road, the center turn lane will be eliminated along much of Madison Avenue. That will allow the road to be narrowed, providing room for a bicycle and pedestrian trail separated from the road by a grass buffer, along with decorative lighting and crosswalks.
As construction begins, business owners are continuing to raise concerns about the short-term impacts to their livelihoods.
Balancing access to businesses with the safety of drivers making their way through a construction zone is a challenge the city will have to navigate during the next six months, capital projects manager Kevin Steinmetz said.
For the owners of two other local businesses, one of their primary concerns is the ability of drivers to access the area once the road closure expands to two lanes and traffic will have one lane to share, something that is expected to happen around the middle of May.
Jackie Poe, who owns The Flower Market at 199 N. Madison Ave., said much of her business relies on walk-in customers who notice her as they are driving along Madison Avenue. Cheryl Domi, the owner of Sassafras Tea Room at 229 N. Madison Ave., said her concern is that customers will choose a more convenient location to dine, rather than one that will be difficult to access.
“They have bulldozers parked in front of my business and it’s hard for people to see me when they drive by,” Domi said.
The city is handling the construction project differently than other roadwork in recent years in order to minimize the impact on businesses, Steinmetz said.
Rather than shutting down the street and doing construction from curb to curb, like how Worthsville Road was handled between U.S. 31 and Interstate 65, the section on Madison Avenue between Pearl and Noble streets is being done in two sections. The first part, which will last to the middle of May, is on the northbound lane. The second section will include work on the southbound and the center lanes, Steinmetz said.
The goal is to always allow traffic on Madison Avenue, he said.
During the second section, when only one lane will be open for traffic, the current plan is to only allow northbound traffic, with southbound drivers being directed to U.S. 31, Steinmetz said.
However, other options to allow traffic to go both ways, such as workers directing traffic or temporary traffic signals, are being considered, depending on what works best to manage traffic, he said.
For business owners, the past weeks and months have been spent working to educate their customers about the upcoming project, making sure to reassure them that their businesses will be open and providing advice on the best ways to navigate the construction.
Groth is working on maps to hand out to customers, but she and other business owners want the city to take a more active role in letting drivers know that businesses are still open, such as putting up signs at either end of Madison Avenue.
“It will be a lean summer for many of us if they don’t help us out with the publicity end of it,” Poe said.
Right now, signs saying that businesses remain open haven’t been placed yet, but some could be set up later when only one lane is open, Steinmetz said.
Poe doesn’t believe the city has taken into consideration just how much local businesses will be impacted by the construction project, she said.
“It feels like the city doesn’t care about small businesses,” she said.
Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers said that the city is more than willing to talk with any business owners about their concerns.
“If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t be investing in them,” Myers said. “We are investing money downtown because we want to see them grow and thrive.”
Besides work on Madison Avenue, another $10 million of road projects are planned in and near downtown Greenwood this summer, including a roundabout being constructed at the Smith Valley Road and Madison Avenue intersection, a new road being built between Surina Plaza and Market Way, a new parking lot being north of Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic Church and a rebuild of Emerson Avenue between Main Street and County Line Road.
Poe questioned why all of the road projects had to be done at once.
“If you were remodeling your home, you wouldn’t tear out your kitchen, bathroom and living room at the same time,” she said.
Myers acknowledged that doing all of these projects at the same time does create an extra hassle for drivers, but this was the best solution for the city instead of spreading projects out and continually having to deal with construction, he said.
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As work begins on the first phase of a $12.5 million rebuild of Madison Avenue from Smith Valley Road to County Line Road, here’s a look at some details on the first section of the project:
Cost: $2 million
Timeline: April through September
Project details: A reconstruction of Madison Avenue from Pearl Street to Noble Street. The project will involve removing the center turn lane and adding a 12-foot-wide trail with a grass buffer and two marked pedestrian crossings, one of which will have a stop signal for traffic.
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