Actions

Broadway widening: Businesses deal with disruption

Project to finish in about two months

By: Craig Smith

Posted

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — It’s been a bumpy road for businesses whereBroadway is being widened.

Broadway construction should help businesses bloom along the route but they have to ride out the effect of the congestion first.

It takes some determination to drive down Broadway between Country Club and Euclid. There have been about two years of construction to widen the road. Getting the job done led to the sort of detours, blockages and bumps that made it tougher for businesses to bring in customers.

Serving up food right near Broadway and Country Club, the Bisbee Breakfast Club has been feeling the crunch.

Tiare Barrett says, “Sometimes the parking lot is closed off or Country Club will be closed off in the mornings and we can definitely feel it as a restaurant as far as the speed of business and stuff. So especially with the holidays, you know, around usually it's a little bit busier than it is right now for us. So we're just trying to do our best.”

Some Broadway businesses have gone out of business or moved somewhere else. The Regional Transportation Authority does have a program to help businesses, by briefing them on construction updates, and posting signs to steer customers through the construction and into the shops. The RTA program even offers advice on how to grow a business despite construction affecting in-person customers.

But at Bisbee Breakfast Club they say even with that information, there’s still the challenge of getting customers to the breakfast table.

Tiare Barrett says, “You know, it just leaves us with the information and then we got to try and do our best on our end to to make sure we still can do what we can to have everybody come and eat breakfast like they always do.”

But the RTA says the project’s end is in sight. The project website predicts construction for about another two months.

----

STAY IN TOUCH WITH US ANYTIME, ANYWHERE