The cruelest season for some businesses is construction season

The Sixth Street SW Reconstruction project makes Hawkeye Downs Sinclair Manager Judi Kilburg look back almost fondly at the flood of June 2008.

The flood of June 2008 shut down the store for a few days as it cleaned up the mess left when nearby Prairie Creek rose up to cover the floor of the store.. Business bounced back briskly as other flooded convenience stores damged more heavily in the area remained closed.

The Sixth Street Reconstruction Project began last fall, causing lane closures and traffic disruptions that have cut deeply into business. On a recent day, one of the store's entrances was closed while newly poured pavement was hardening, and the side of Sixth Street nearest the store was closed, along with the main entrance to Hawkeye Downs across the street.

 Kilburg's been told it's a two-year project, and even when it's done she doesn't expect traffic access to be as good as it was before because a landscaped island being added in front of the store will limit the turning radius for trucks.

"I would love to get back to whatever normal is," Kilburg said.

"Normal" is the dream for hundreds of Corridor businesses trying to survive the summer in a challenging economy while their main entrances are temporarily blocked or just plain scary to enter amid a maze of pylons, signs and construction vehicles. Store traffic declines 20 percent, 30 percent, and even 40 percent at different times, store owners and operators say. Business interruption insurance typically doesn't reimburse them, so they take their lumps.

"It's hard to say how many people have driven through who might have stopped," said Luida English, whose employer, the Floor to Ceiling Decorating Center in Anamosa, has been shut off from its Main Street access for most of the past month. English said it's fortunate that Anamosa is a small community in which most people knew the maze of side streets that could still reach the store.

Just getting inventory delivered was a challenge during the reconstruction process. English said she developed a good rapport with the construction crew, calling them on a cell phone whenever a delivery was expected so that they could advise her on how the truck could get through the work zone.

"We did put off some truck drivers on the hard days when we knew we couldn't get them through, and just asked them to come next week," English said. " We couldn't get trucks through in the first two weeks, but we eventually just had to have some deliveries."

The state and local governments that plan the construction projects do the best they can to acommodate businesses, often providing bright-orange entrance signs so that motorists can still see where to enter, and phasing construction so that business entrances are open as much as possible.

Kilburg said the contractor working on the Sixth Street project has kept her advised about the best times to accept fuel deliveries during construction so trucks don't have to be turned back. Still, she said, there've been times when she's had to ask the store's supplier not to send its regularly scheduled delivery.

Rich Mason has been stopping at Hawkeye Downs Sinclair for six years to fill up with diesel as a oil product delivery driver for Valley Distribution. He stopped on Thursday, August 4, even though one of the convenience store's two entrances was closed and he would have to do a three-point turn in the 35-foot-long truck to get out.

"It's a lot of jockeying around with a big vehicle, but you don't have much choice," Mason said.

Some businesses have operated their entire short existances in construction zones.

Capone's Restaurant at 1201 Third St. SE opened on March 14. Work on the Third Street reconstruction and streetscaping project begin three days later.

Owner Dave Fountain has heard plenty from customers about how hard it is to get to Capone's, especially when the intersection right in front  of the establishment was closed. He said the best Capone's can do for the customers who make it down through the construction zone is to thank them and treat them right.

"They're finding us," he said. "I think it will only get better with time."

The Chrome Horse Saloon and Slop House and the Parlor City Pub & Eatery have been getting by on the same construction-clogged intersection.

Lunch hour traffic has definitely dipped at Parlor City during the construction, according to server Shannon Power, who's noticed her own income decline along with it. Evening and weekend business has held up better, she said. The staff tries to talk to customers about "where to park and how to get here."

Parlor City has cultivated a loyal following of bicyclists during the construction work. They don't worry as much about the temporary absence of on-street parking during construction as motorists.

Chrome Horse Manager Mark Dukes is in agreement with Power and Fountain that completing Third Street will be a great benefit to business. He says the staff thanks customers for enduring the construction.

"For any given Saturday night, parking is at a premium and now there's no on-street parking because of construction," he said.

The number of construction projects being undertaken by the Iowa Department of Transportation this summer hasn't changed much from recent summer construction seasons, according to Mark Bortle, a DOT traffic safety engineer in Ames.

Bortle said the DOT requires contractors to maintain access to businesses and property owners during projects, and in some cases develops specific traffic control plans to preserve access.

Businesses that lose money during construction aren't entitled to reimbursement, however.

"Lower profit is not eligible for reimbursement as long as there is access," Bortle said. He said the construction work is generally considered a long-term benefit to the property owners, "but they have to be able to weather the storm."

Some cities and counties provide temporary access signs to businesses during construction, but the DOT does not. Bortle said that's partly because most DOT projects are in rural areas that don't have as many businesses, and partly because it's hard to determine fairly which property owners should receive a temporary sign.

Luida English, employee of Floor to Ceiling Home Decorating Center, Anamosa

It's kind of a small smot. Everybody knows the back roads. But it has slowed down the walk-in traffic due to the fact that nobody's on Main Street. They have to want to get here.

Under construction 3.5 weeks.

It will be lovely. You wouldn't ask for better people on that road crew. I'd call them and say, I've got a truck on Main Street. How do I get them in here?

We did put off some truck drives on the hard days when we knew we couldn't get them ghrough, and just asked them to come next week. We couldn't get trucks through in the first two weeks, but we eventually just had to have some deliveries.

I'ts hard to say how many people drove through who might have stopped.

Mark Dukes, general manager, the Chrome Horse Slop House and Saloon.

Maybe it has to a certain extent, but the project's been going on since February and a lot of people have found ways of getting down here.

I                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    A lot of us in business down here are looking forward to it being completed.

Like even thank them for tinding their way down here during the construction.

For any given Saturday night, parking is at a premium and now thee's no onstreet parking because of construction.