BusinessReport.com

It’s a cold, rainy Friday as Perkins Road turns into a bumper-to-bumper crawl of traffic squeezing through a muddied, hazardous obstacle course of roadwork lined with neon orange cones and large equipment.

A silver SUV eases out of the line, inching its way onto a narrow, gravel driveway past two-foot-deep recesses on both sides and into an Ambrosia Bakery parking space. Swinging open the door, they’re greeted by an intoxicating sugary sweetness and a clerk who announces they’re already boxing the wedding cake.

“We’re very blessed,” Ambrosia owner Felix Sherman says. “People will come through hell or high water to get here.”

Traffic delays and heavy congestion, accidents and tight access in areas of a three-mile widening project from Essen to Siegen lanes have beset one of the city’s fastest growing retail and restaurant hotspots as heavy work continues amid an estimated daily traffic count of 25,000 vehicles.

The project, which started a year and a half ago when the Department of Transportation and Development [DOTD] awarded the $27 million project to James Construction, has reached the midpoint.

“I just wish they’d finish it. … At least show some progress,” Sherman says.

While he and neighboring business owners agree the widening is badly needed, some argue project delays are hurting business as potential customers are prevented from getting through or bypass the area altogether.

Sherman estimates his business is off by 20%. In October, sales plummeted for a week while he waited for James Construction to rebuild their makeshift driveway that was suddenly removed with no explanation.

“They get their check every week,” he says. “I have to depend on these people every week—they drive sales.”

Not only has the project hurt sales, but it’s also made the road a risky route.

Sherman says he’s seen several accidents, including an older woman who missed a gravel driveway that left her Oldsmobile hanging over a steep dropoff that will eventually become an outer lane of Perkins Road. A wrecker pulled her out.

“It’s really tough when you think about what we’re trying to do,” DOTD Communications Director Mark Lambert says. “We’re trying to keep traffic moving while working in tight quarters with the equipment. There’s a lot of development there, and what isn’t developing is being developed.”

James Construction is contractually obligated to one deadline—January 2010—for the entire project. But Lambert says the DOTD did initially say it planned to do the project in three phases with a year dedicated to each: Phase One from Siegen Lane to Bluebonnet Boulevard, Phase Two is the intersection of Bluebonnet and Perkins and Phase Three from Bluebonnet to Essen Lane. That would have put Phase One’s targeted completion in May, but bad weather prevented the contractor from getting concrete crews to the site, so it’s been pushed to early fall.

“The danger is if you tell the public a tentative completion date, and if it doesn’t happen, people hold you to it,” Lambert says. “Sometimes we’re wrong. It’s very hard to project in early 2007 what will happen in 2008.”

If James Construction misses the deadline, it will have to pay a penalty of $630 per day to DOTD until the job is finished. In other projects, the DOTD offered bonuses for finishing projects earlier, but in this case Lambert says the project cost $7 million more than anticipated, leaving no funds for a bonus incentive.

To recoup three- to four-month delay, the contractor redirected work to Phase Three drainage, which is now 75% complete. But Lambert says inquiries started coming in when workers disappeared from Phase One. DOTD announced the change in an e-mail update.

“While Phase One has been delayed, the third phase will go faster because of the advanced work,” he says. “We believe the overall impact will help us finish the project ahead of schedule.”

Kevin Ortego, owner of Louisiana Lagniappe Restaurant on Perkins just east of Bluebonnet, also questions the absence of workers and calls for a “sense of urgency” to complete the project. While Ortego praises James Construction’s responsiveness to issues like cleaning messes it makes in his parking lot, where it stores road equipment, he still questions how the work is being planned.

Work is sometimes done on Friday and Saturday nights—two of the restaurant’s busier nights—and Ortego says weekend traffic can be even heavier than weekdays as people seek out the area’s numerous restaurants and stores.

Ortego has his own horror stories. The day before the Super Bowl, a crew rolled up in front of the restaurant with paint stripers, making the place look like it had been hit by a duststorm. Two weeks ago, workers appeared on a Thursday night with a Louisiana State Trooper, who blocked off the area and refused to let some customers into the restaurant. Ortego complained to DOTD, which apologized and stated it would not use the trooper again.

“You expect difficulties,” Ortego says, “but at a certain point it’s, ‘Come on.’”

Developer Richard Carmouche, whose Settlement at Willow Grove east of Perkins Rowe has limited access since the work started, also questions project planning.

“I like what they’re doing so I’d never fault that, I just wish they’d finish it,” says Carmouche, who is also questioning an absence of workers on the site. “They don’t seem to be working with any kind of purpose. The project is dragging.”

He also maintains it’s hurting a lot of businesses in the project area, including his own. It’s harder to get people to see his houses because the road is torn up and somewhat dangerous, which could really cut into busier selling months like May.

“If you fall off the road, you need a tow truck to pull you out because it’s so steep,” he says. “It’s really not a safe situation. It’s hard to see where you want to turn to enter these businesses. The road they’re working on is sometimes three to four feet lower than the road you’re driving on, and so it’s dangerous.”

At the Sonic Drive-In east of Bluebonnet Boulevard, Manager Larry Pollard saw a car tire enveloped by a sinkhole that developed in the middle of the road. Pollard helped direct traffic while a tow truck freed the vehicle, and James Construction filled the hole that day.

Pollard, who says daily sales have dropped by half, has seen several vehicles miss their turns for the new Fresh Market and end up in the areas dug for the outside lanes.

“It’s not good. They hit our water lines twice,” he says. “We had to close.”

GETTING THE SHOW ON THE ROAD

A timeline of the Perkins Road widening project from Essen Lane to Siegen Lane:

Dec. 12, 2006: The state Department of Transportation and Development [DOTD] and the contractor, James Construction, outline the Perkins Road widening project at a public meeting at St. George Catholic Church. They explain the $27 million project will involve widening three miles of Perkins Road from two to five lanes. It also calls for six-foot wide sidewalks, drainage, upgrading signals, and curbs and gutters. Work was planned in three phases with each to take about a year to complete to ease impact on the area and traffic.

Mid-January 2007: James Construction begins work on Phase One [Siegen Lane to Bluebonnet Boulevard].

Mid-January 2008: Bad weather delays the contractor from getting concrete crews to Phase One of the project. To recoup time on the project, James Construction redirects efforts to begin drainage work on Phase Three of the project [from Bluebonnet to Essen Lane].

Mid-March 2008: Phase Three drainage is 75% complete. On Phase One, the contractor begins pouring concrete at night on outer lanes, sidewalks and curb and gutters, to be completed by summer. Once completed, traffic will be routed to the outer lanes to rip out the existing roadway and lay down those lanes by early fall.

Late fall 2008: Work could begin on Phase Two [intersection of Perkins and Bluebonnet]. DOTD plans a second public meeting to update the project. The date will be announced.

January 2010: Scheduled completion date. Should the project not be completed by this date, James Construction faces fines of $630 per day.