A mixture of road work and driver headaches

LACONIA — Major road projects over the summer on Court Street, Union Avenue and Messer Street have frustrated motorists and businesses, but Public Works Director Wes Anderson said construction is on schedule and the work will last for many years when it is done.

“It is the case that to have better roads and major arterials, you will have an extended period of time when traffic and property owners are affected because we have to do the work required to ensure an acceptable life span,” he said Wednesday.

Anderson said people may not realize that the road work entails more than just applying a new layer of asphalt. In many cases, the road bed itself has to be improved and underground utilities, some a century old, have to be replaced.

It makes no sense to rehabilitate a roadway only to have to tear it up again to get to a broken water line, he said. Sewage, storm water, electrical and cable systems often have to be replaced or updated.

Other times there are unforeseen delays. Crews broke a gas line under Union Avenue, mistakenly believing it was inactive.

“We find stuff wasn’t where it was supposed to be and stuff that was not supposed to be there,” Anderson said. “This causes shifting around and redesign work.”

Other times, people mistakenly think the road is being torn up shortly after paving has been done.

Anderson said he got a call recently from someone who thought that happened on Court Street, but, in reality, what was occurring was that a long gas line was being welded above ground.

The projects

Court Street has been torn up for two construction seasons in a row.

Last year, crews were working on Court Street from Keasor Court to Fair Street.

This year, they’ve been working from Fair Street to Main Street. With the close of this construction season, the work there essentially should be done, although a bridge will be placed over Durkee Brook next year. The bridge work will be on an accelerated schedule. It will be built off site and then dropped into place.

The work on Messer Street has been accomplished, Anderson said.

The first phase of work on Union Avenue — Elm Street to Walnut Street — will be completed this season. Next year, crews will tackle the section from Walnut Street to Stark Street.

Improved communication

At Monday night's City Council meeting, Councilor Henry Lipman said community concerns could be reduced through improved communication.

He urged City Manager Scott Myers to better explain how long projects will take and what’s entailed.

Lipman said his constituents have let him know how they feel about all the construction.

“I’ve been getting more hits on this than pretty much anything else for a long time,” he said. “We’re losing the community with respect to the value we are investing, in terms of improving the streets here.”

Councilor Robert Hamel had a different complaint. He said that when there is a lull in construction, road crews leave streets in very rough condition.

“It’s not just the construction that is frustrating, it’s also frustrating how the trenches are left,” he said.

“If you don’t have a truck, you’re going to bottom out,” he said. “Someone has to be responsible. The ruts have to be taken care of. I don’t see that happening. It’s just not good.”

Myers responded: “Duly noted.”

The detour

Traffic was detoured off Union Avenue for much of the summer. Businesses affected include Art Escape, Cantin Chevrolet, Aroma Joe’s Coffee, Bayside Service, Fisher Auto Parts, Mustache Pete's, Chaos and Kindness, Open Door Daycare, Liberty Tax Service, Barks and Bubbles and Belknap Tire. 

Jean Cox, owner of Art Escape, said she lost 25 to 30 percent of her walk-in business over the summer. People come to her shop and make art projects. On a good day, her tables are filled with people working with clay, paints and glass.  This summer, the tables were often empty. 

She has been dissatisfied with the city’s response to her concerns. She has been a frequent caller to the Public Works Department and the the city manager's office. She even called the governor's office.

People staffing the detour are supposed to let local traffic through, but there have been times when people were told they couldn't drive straight to businesses in the detour area.

Signage has sometimes not been clear. Improvements have been made, but Cox takes issue with the fact that a sign listing the open businesses comes after – instead of before – a flagger holding a stop sign for the detour, which begins about a half-mile before the actual construction site starting at the intersection of Union Avenue and Elm Street.

A sign at Mechanic Street where the detour begins says Union Avenue is closed at Elm Street above an orange sign saying "Businesses Open."

At one point during the construction, Cox dressed in a bunny suit and held up a sign to let motorists know it was OK to come through the detour to access local businesses.

She acknowledged road work is needed. Pavement in sections of Union Avenue are in poor shape, with major potholes and sunken roadway.

“But they also need to have a plan to make sure that when you’re doing road construction for a year, the businesses there aren’t going out of business,” Cox said. “Like, I’m still here paying full property tax.”

She said other cities do a better job of helping local businesses through major road repair projects, even paying for advertising to let the public know their shops can still be accessed.

Aroma Joe's

Alexyss Lemay, manager of Aroma Joe's, said the detour has hurt the drive-through coffee and pastry business.

"Customer count is down from last year," she said. "Sales are down. We've had angry customers because the flagger was mean to them. They even gave employees a hard time coming to work. It's been crazy."

When there was no construction around the 4th of July weekend, business picked up. 

Client frustration

Greg Parker, service manager at Bayside Service, said most of the auto shop’s clients book their work ahead of time, so the impact of the detour has been more of a frustration than a loss of revenue.

“We don’t rely here on a lot of drive-by business, so I don’t think it affects us too much,” he said. “It may inconvenience our customers who don’t realize they can tell the flagger that they are coming here and just automatically think they have to detour.

“Until recently it wasn’t well marked. They’ve done a better job because it does say local traffic only, but then again they have the sign up showing all the local businesses, but it’s after the detour. Wouldn’t you think it would be before it?”

Hiccups noted

At a City Council meeting, on Aug. 26, Myers, the city manager, acknowledged there had been some issues at the detour spot. He said there had been “hiccups” when flaggers were telling motorists they could not go directly to the businesses.

“It wasn’t our best moment,” he said at the time.

“If you can’t tell, this has been a pet peeve of mine for several months now.”

He then said he would personally make sure the appropriate signage was in place.

On Wednesday, he said there are always challenges during road construction season.

“We try to be flexible, adaptable, listen to the needs of businesses and make changes to be supportive of those needs,” Myers said.