Orange cones dot Miss. Highway 12 in Starkville, slowing traffic to a standstill. To some drivers, the cones may seem like a permanent fixture, but they actually appeared during late summer.
As November approaches, local business owners say they continue to see a decline in their business as a result of the construction.
“People don’t want to come in and stop because they’re afraid they won’t be able to get back out,” says Susie Yeatman, who works at Shipley’s Donuts. “That’s what they’ve told us before when they’ve come in.”
Yeatman said the popular shop’s sales have fallen by half since construction began.
“On a busy morning, the road kept people from coming in,” she said.
Dodds Gentry, owner and manager of Gentry’s restaurant next door, says he’s tried to be optimistic about the roadwork.
“Maybe during ball games they’ll be sitting there in traffic and see your sign, but that’s still not good,” Gentry says, shrugging his shoulders.
Down the road across the highway at McDonald’s, the work has also cut into the fast food giant’s business, said its manager.
“Sales have decreased since the road crew has been working,” McDonald’s Manager Patrick Clayborn said.
Brenda Bell, manager of Golden Scissors, said while business was down, she had seen an increase since the opening of the Starkville Bypass.
Some businesses have tried to counter their losses through increased advertising. Yeatman said Shipley’s has bought television and newspaper ads.
“We’ve run ads in local daily newspaper to generate sales,” said Clayborn.
Paul Swindoll, district engineer for Mississippi Department of Transportation, said road crews try to assist businesses when they can.
“We’ve tried to keep at least one driveway, one access open to those businesses, but there are inconveniences when you do that type of work,” Swindoll explained. “Hopefully we’ve minimized that inconvenience.”
Clayborn said the construction workers have tried to cooperate. He asked the workers to avoid construction during the lunch hours when customers and hungry and in a hurry.
“We can get people in and out quicker during lunch hours if they aren’t working,” Clayborn said. “Whenever they have closed one side of the driveway down, they usually have it open by the end of the day so that business can continue to flow.”
Clayborn said McDonald’s offered discounts to construction workers to keep them from working during the busiest business hours.
Even with different sales strategies, some drivers do choose to bypass the construction completely.
“I won’t even come this way,” Yeatman said. “I’ll come up beside Harvey’s just to avoid all this construction.
“For a while, I’ve seen people get rear-ended about once a week, and they have to pull in here for the cops to talk to them,”
Yeatman said, pointing to the nearly empty parking lot. People get trapped in the intersection and don’t have anywhere to move. There’s no where to turn now. The fast lane is now the right turn lane, so everybody has to slow down and wait for people to turn.”
Swindoll said the specified completion date is May 10, 2004.
“The contract time began on that project March 13. I don’t know if that’s actually the date they got started, but that’s when the contract began,” he said. “As of Sept. 25, we had 50 percent of the work done and 59 percent of the time used. In my opinion, that’s reasonably on schedule.”
While the project may appear to be moving on schedule, Gentry fears the coming winter weather and construction work won’t deliver more customers to his restaurant.
“It’s going to be cold, rainy and wet,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to be a big priority to get it fixed, but I’m not a construction guy.”
Mayor Mack Rutledge said the Highway 12 construction has not hurt tax revenues. Although there was a sharp, inexplicable drop in April and May, the other months are ahead compared to last year’s figures.
“I can’t offer why those months would be exceedingly low and the following ones would be slightly ahead,” Rutledge said. “I really don’t think they are connected with the project. I haven’t been able to see any connection.
The road improvement project was inspired by a study conducted by Michael Baker and Associates of Jackson in December 1995 as a means of easing traffic to and from the university, Rutledge said.
“The first recommendation they made was widening Highway 12 at Spring Street,” he added.
Recommendations also included adding lanes at Spring Street/Black Jack Road and the Locksley intersection.
“The part already done by the university has been done, and the city has plans to expand,” he said.
And while businesses, for the short term, continue to see lower profit margins, Rutledge says the city can’t compensate their losses of business.
“They, of course, are compensated for any footage that may have been taken away for the expansion,” Rutledge said.
Despite the hardships some businesses are facing, once construction ends, the aftermath looks promising, MDOT’s Swindoll said.
“When the work’s completed, I anticipate that we’ll have an intersection that will move traffic more efficiently,” he said.
Gentry agreed that he’s optimistic about his business picking up once the crews finish their work.
“I think after construction there’ll be a lot more cars coming through,” Gentry said. “Any time you’ve got construction, it’ll hurt you.”