Dig this? Not quite, merchants say

Work on avenue bad for business

A MassHighway engineer said the $20.7 million construction project along Somerville Avenue is months ahead of schedule. (Evan Richman/Globe Staff)

No one was expecting the state Highway Department's reconstruction of Somerville Avenue to be a walk in the park.

The $20.7 million gutting of the busy thoroughfare between Union and Porter squares, which began last spring, was projected to last up to three years. Business owners and residents knew it would create traffic congestion, noise, and poor road conditions.

But even those who dreaded the start of construction on this 1.3-mile stretch could not have anticipated that it would come to this: Alderman Tom Taylor is asking the city to look into reimbursing business owners for revenue lost during the first year of the project.

"I certainly wouldn't want us to have a brand-new street without any storefronts," said Taylor.

Carl Razzaboni, the owner of Park Sales Bike Shop, which opened in 1952, said the costs to businesses along the road have been high.

"It's been devastating. I don't think there's anybody that's been excluded," he said. "There should be some way we can get help."

But Rich DeSantis, assistant district construction engineer for MassHighway, said the state does not reimburse businesses for lost revenue.

"If we made an exception on that, it would cost us a fortune," DeSantis said. "The only compensation we do is by getting done as soon as possible and also by the finished product, which will make the area down there that much nicer."

Alderwoman Maryann Heuston said she is working to open communication lines between business owners and the state to ensure that businesses get sufficient notification when their utilities will be cut, that equipment does not block business entrances, and that the street is safe for pedestrians as well as cars.

Domenic Previte, co-owner of Somerville Car Wash & Detail Center, said his sales are down 30 percent and four of his employees quit because he couldn't give them enough hours. On Tuesday, when backhoes were digging in front of his business, his sales were down 50 percent, he said.

"If you look at Somerville Avenue today, there's nobody on it," he said. "People are avoiding this area like the plague."

His manager, Craig Wheeler, said no one wants to deal with the traffic backups, diversions, or uneven roads. "If I didn't work here, I wouldn't be coming down this road," Wheeler said. "It's horrible."

David Cashel, general manager for Wings Over Somerville, a takeout restaurant that sells 22 flavors of wings, said he estimates that his store is losing $7,000 a month - or about one-third of profits - because of significantly reduced traffic passing by his store. "The whole thing is just a mess," he said.

On what should have been his busiest day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday, a backhoe parked in front of his store, blocking the Wings sign and the entrance.

Twice the water has been shut off during the project, once for a whole day and another time at 7 p.m., when he was given only an hour's notice. "It's been one thing after another after another," he said.

But the main problem, he said, has been the failure of the contractor, P. Gioioso & Sons Inc. of Boston, to live up to the agreement to complete a two-block area before moving on to the next area. The company did not return calls for comment.

The project was supposed to provide one open lane of traffic in each direction at night, after work is completed for the day. That has not always happened, Heuston said.

DeSantis said Gioioso ran into problems under the road - old utility lines that were in its path as it attempted to install a 4 1/2-foot drainage culvert. Instead of stopping work while waiting for the issue to be resolved, the city and the state agreed that the contractor could continue work farther down the street, DeSantis said, which has meant a significant chunk of Somerville Avenue is dug up.

Taylor and some business owners have been disappointed with the response from Gioioso, which sent a public relations representative to a meeting with business owners this month. Another meeting is scheduled for Thursday, and Taylor said he has asked that engineers from the city and state attend the meeting to hear business owners' concerns.

DeSantis said the project is months ahead of schedule, and that by this fall the deep roadwork will be done and Somerville Avenue will look almost normal again. The contractor will turn its attention to making physical improvements, such as building wider sidewalks, installing decorative street lights and benches, and planting nearly 200 trees.

But even news that the project is ahead of schedule is not music to the ears of business owners, some of whom feel that it was rushed at their expense.

Previte said if Gioioso finishes months ahead of schedule, "that's a huge windfall for that company." He said it would be nice to see some of the money go back to business owners.

"It was on our shoulders," Previte said. "We bore the brunt of it."