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Road delays take bite out of businesses
By DAN DeWITT BROOKSVILLE -- Every day that work continues on the roads south of downtown is another day that businesses suffer, said David Price, owner of Ye Olde Fireside Inn. "Though it looks better than it was, it's still a big mess," said Price, whose restaurant is on U.S. 41, just north of the State Road 50 truck bypass. Business at the Fireside has been down since the construction began three years ago and continues to decline, Price said. His receipts in recent weeks are about 25 percent lower than at the same time last year. Former customers have grown accustomed to going to restaurants on roads that do not require them to weave in and out of traffic barrels, he said. "I think people are so tired of coming over here and fighting this road," he said. "To somebody who doesn't drive it every day, it looks like an obstacle course." The project Price complains about -- the widening of U.S. 41 and the SR 50 bypass -- originally was scheduled to be finished in about two years, and is now coming to the end of its third. The state's current deadline for the project, which may change slightly if work is stopped by rain, is Friday. But the way work is progressing, the project probably will not be finished until late September, said Kris Carson, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. "In talking with the project manager, it does not appear they will meet the deadline," Carson said. "It's really hard to put a date on it, but that's the estimate now -- the end of September," she said. For every day the work lags beyond the deadline, she said, the contractor, Smith & Co. of Stuart, will be required to pay a fine of $7,118. The remaining work includes laying a final layer of asphalt on U.S. 41 and the sections of the bypass on either side of its intersection with U.S. 41. The contractor will then have to paint stripes on the road and finish installing signs, Carson said. The company did not return calls from the Times to its office last week. Smith must pay if it misses its current deadline, Carson said, because those days would be considered unexcused. Along the way, the state has granted a number of excused ones. The project, which began in September 1999, originally was scheduled to be completed in 620 working days, Carson said. Smith has asked for and received a total extension of 150 days for bad weather. The company has received another 266 days in extensions for other delays. Much of that time stems from a disagreement with Brooksville, which hired Smith & Co. to move its utility lines to accommodate the widening of the highways. Smith claimed the plans failed to show existing telephone lines and other underground utilities, a situation that prevented the company from completing the project the way it was designed. Besides agreeing to the extension, the state and the city agreed to pay the company $857,000 to settle the complaint. That contributed to the total increase in the price of the project, from $20.5-million to $22.3-million, said Mark DeLorenzo of AIM Engineering & Surveying Inc., the company the state hired to supervise the work. Deficiencies in the work have also prolonged the project. In July, for example, the company was required to tear up and replace 250 uneven spots that inspectors found in the paving. The state said that the delays would not cost taxpayers, either for the additional asphalt or the extra time. But it is costing business owners, Price said. None of the payments the contractor makes to the state are passed on to defray his business losses, he said. "We don't get anything," he said, "and this is just killing us." -- Dan DeWitt covers the city of Brooksville, politics and the environment. He can be reached at 754-6116. Send e-mail to dewitt@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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