PORT ANGELES — The confluence of construction projects in downtown Port Angeles has crippled business among stores this winter, a city councilman says.
“Some businesses have not had a sale in three weeks,” Councilman Don Perry said during a City Council meeting Tuesday night.
“It’s unbelievably dead.”
But there’s no government aid available to help the hard-hit businesses, City Manager Mark Madsen said.
Some business owners have said that they have lost business because of three simultaneous city construction projects creating detours and tearing up roads and sidewalks, Perry said.
Construction began on the Port Angeles International Gateway Transportation Center at Lincoln and Front streets last June and is expected to last through the summer.
Along with noisy pile driving and numerous cement trucks, that project has required intermittent closure of Lincoln Street between Railroad Avenue and Front Street.
Meanwhile, traffic has been detoured to First Street downtown while the two Eighth Street bridges are replaced.
That project began in August and is expected to last until November.
And at the same time, a sidewalk and water main repair project closed traffic lanes on those detours, not to mention some sidewalks on First and Front streets by work that is expected to last until April.
Some businesses on Front Street — including a bank, a record store, barbershop and bar — have been isolated by a deep ditch in place of the sidewalk.
