West Chestnut firms long for end of construction

Businesses along West Chestnut Expressway have been promised newly paved roads, driveways and street accesses. However, until the dust settles, many are struggling.

A $3.7 million Missouri Department of Transportation construction project to widen, resurface, install curb and gutter, and improve water drainage on West Chestnut began last October. It is being funded by the eighth-cent sales tax approved by city voters in 1996.

According to Bob Edwards, MoDOT public affairs specialist, the project is scheduled to be finished by the end of June.

In the meantime, businesses along the more than two mile stretch of construction are losing customer traffic and ultimately revenues.

"It's been pretty bad," said Showcase Movies owner Kirsten Gardner, "I think a lot of people are avoiding this (construction)."

Gardner's video store, at 2845 W. Chestnut, Ste. C, in the Westway Center, relies on heavy foot traffic, and without it she is feeling the effects. Gardner said the biggest losses so far were last month.

"It's kind of hard to tell because April and May are two of the slowest months in the video business because it's springtime," she said. "But for us to experience the kind of horrible cash flow we've been having ... it's not just the weather we've done a little bit more than half of what we did last April, and that's pretty bad."

Showcase Movies is not the only business feeling the effects. Alli's Family Restaurant, a 1-year-old restaurant at 4525 W. Chestnut, also is having to deal with unusually slow times.

"A customer told me We love your food, but we hate to come through this mess.' So it does affect business," the restaurant's owner, Alli Kahn, said of the construction.

Alli's experienced a 30 percent decrease in April's sales compared to average months.

But maybe just as hard to accept as that, he has lost a few parking spaces in his lot and his driveway was narrowed. Kahn said he was not asked or even notified about these changes.

"That's the bureaucracy of this," he said. "I have to accept it."

Still, he is keeping a positive attitude and understands the good that will come out of it.

"In my opinion, this is short term ... in the long run it will be good for everybody," Kahn said.

Gardner is not so understanding.

"To get in and out of our shopping center is a gravel nightmare," she said, referring to the gravel laid to bring the road entrance level with the parking lot. Gardner said it looks like they laid concrete driveways 18 to 20 inches higher than the existing road, so until it's repaved it's tough getting in and out.

But she is happy to be in a strip center with several entrances.

"That's one good thing we have going for us," Gardner said. "I'd hate to be someplace that has one driveway that could close you down for a couple of weeks."

In a press release dated Oct. 19, 2000, and issued before work began, MoDOT stated that "workers will keep one driveway or part of a driveway open at all times ... in hopes of minimizing inconvenience."

According to AutoZone assistant manager Sean Appleby, whose store has only one driveway at 3132 W. Chestnut, MoDOT and the workers from Hartman Construction Co. have been true to their word.

He said the work has just caused traffic to be held up.

"One side of it will be torn up while the other side is open," he said. "It's normally a two-lane drive and now it's a one-lane drive."

Gardner added, "They've been pretty good about it. We usually have at least one lane open."

The asphalt repaving has begun on the far west end of Chestnut.

When they get down to Gardner's lot, she said the video store will not close for any amount of time.