Intersection project extended by a month or more. Businesses say they've been hit hard.
With the closure of a major intersection lasting more than a month longer than originally planned, one business owner said he’s filed a claim against the city and another says she’s shutting her seasonal business weeks early.
The intersection of North Golden State Boulevard and Fulkerth Road/West Hawkeye Avenue closed July 31 and at the time was expected to reopen at some point this month. But the city of Turlock’s Engineering Division reports that the closure now will continue through Nov. 1.
“Access to transit and local businesses will be maintained,” the city’s announcement says. But Sergio Gutierrez, owner of Restaurante Los Gallos, on West Hawkeye just east of the intersection, said the detour setup is “difficult and confusing.”
Signs pointing out the intersection closure and detouring traffic away from the businesses are large, he said, while a sign saying businesses remain open is small. Only when drivers are right up at the traffic signals can they read it, Gutierrez said. What was needed were signs a couple of blocks ahead, telling drivers that businesses remain open during the road work, he said.
On the Facebook page for his Mexican restaurant, Gutierrez has offered “detour specials” and tried to let customers know he’s open. But business has been hit hard, he said. “My weekend crowd is done, and I get no church crowd now,” he said Monday. “I’m debating on closing after eight years in business.”
In putting together his claim, he said he documented business in excess of $65,000 for each of the three past years during the same months he’s been affected this year. This year, business is down to about $22,000, he said. His rent stays the same, Gutierrez said, and he’s had to let employees go and throw away food.
And too often, he said, he looks out and sees little or no work being done on the intersection. “It’s frustrating and it’s a mess — it looks like a ghost town out there,” Gutierrez said.
Violet Saveh-Irasava has a lease on the same site, Hawkeye Neighborhood Center, to operate her shaved-ice stand, Heaven Snow. She opened at the beginning of June and said business was strong right up until the work on the intersection began. “We took a really big hit starting Aug. 1,” she said Monday.
At her previous location on Geer Road, Heaven Snow usually stayed open through the second or third week of October, she said. With the late-summer heat the area has been experiencing, that was the plan for this year, too.
Instead, she won’t even be open through the end of September, Saveh-Irasava said, and instead will close Sunday.
Not only had the closure of the intersection rerouted potential customers, she said, but it’s left her mobile stand vulnerable. The lack of strong traffic flow through the area has emboldened criminals, she said, and “we’ve had broken windows, slashed tires and things stolen.”
Saveh-Irasava said she’s cut her business hours, and even when it’s open, the noise and dust of construction are irritating to customers and employees.
The intersection project includes a number of improvements: new dual left-turn lanes from all directions, bike lanes and sidewalks and a new railroad traffic signal system, the city reported at the start of the work. There also will be intersection lighting improvements, pavement rehabilitation and new traffic striping.
All traffic is being detoured by way of Del’s Lane, Pedras Road, Soderquist Road and Canal Drive.
Messages left with Engineering Division, asking what is causing the delay in reopening the intersection, were not immediately returned Monday afternoon.
This story was originally published September 18, 2017 at 3:36 PM with the headline "Intersection project extended by a month or more. Businesses say they've been hit hard.."