[B]URLINGTON – Two days before opening her raw, organic juice shop on St. Paul Street, owner Sherri Bedard heard that completion of construction on the block would be delayed until late in the summer.
After additional setbacks, the project disrupting her business is now slated to be finished in September. The staff at Juice Amour has been reduced to just one paid employee, and she and co-owner Dave Bedard, her father, have been working just to cover the bills.
“I feel right now like we’re just hanging on by our fingernails to get through it,” she said.
The St. Paul Street project is a nearly $5 million reconstruction of two blocks, as part of the city’s Great Streets Initiative, a renovation of several downtown streets. The roadway between Main and Maple streets is being rebuilt to include widened sidewalks, rain gardens, more trees and greenery, bike racks and space for outdoor restaurant seating. Additional upgrades include new benches, granite curbs, and burying overhead utility lines.
Construction on the project began last August. The street was initially expected to be closed until Thanksgiving, reopen for the winter, and then close again from April to the end of May.
Chapin Spencer, Burlington’s director of public works, said there are often unforeseen challenges with construction projects in an older city. The waterline on the street dated back to the 1890s and had a number of breaks that needed to be addressed.
Fuel tanks discovered under St. Paul Street had to be removed last fall.
Spencer said workers also found contaminated soil that had to be removed, and encountered conflicts with wastewater and stormwater utilities the city wanted to install. Much of the infrastructure was deteriorated and needed to be replaced, and multiple private telecom utilities needed to be moved.
“This is an incredibly complex project addressing nearly every utility in the right of way,” he said. “My team is working hard to make this project completed as quickly as possible despite these challenges.”
In January, the Burlington City Council approved an additional $260,000 for the project budget to cover the extra costs.
Spencer said the project is “a generational reinvestment” into an old Burlington street, which involves building infrastructure that will last well into the future.
Similar design standards will be used for Cherry and Bank streets near the CityPlace Burlington redevelopment, and on Main Street in the future.
“This is really going to be a remarkable step forward in creating a new experience in the public realm downtown,” Spencer said.
Work on the upper block of St. Paul Street is slated to be complete at the end of August, while completion on the lower block is expected in mid to late September.
Juice Amour is located in the new Champlain College building on the lower block, and is among the few to fill retail space so far due to construction. Bedard said the new space makes it challenging to draw customers, as people don’t know how to avoid construction and find parking.
Summer is typically the busiest time of the year for juice and smoothie sales, so the drop in customers has been especially tough. Amour Juice also has a Middlebury location, which has helped to offset losses.
Bedard said there were times when both St. Paul and Maple streets were closed, and the sidewalks were closed for foot traffic, making it extremely challenging for anyone to visit the business.
“Literally someone would have to be dropped from the sky to come to us,” she said.
Spencer said he and staff have met with many business owners and residents. The city developed a parking promotion to provide free and discounted parking, and the project’s contractor has been directed to work six days a week.
He said the city is also looking at possible ways to open some of the street to traffic circulation and parking before the project is complete.
Bedard said inaccurate signage was installed telling people where to go. She said she would like Burlington to provide funding for marketing assistance to support businesses in navigating the changes.
Spencer said once the challenges of construction are complete, Burlington will have an improved roadway that “will last for generations.”
“The city fundamentally believes that proactively repairing our infrastructure is better than reactively responding to problems,” he said.
