More Florida Street Construction

It was a packed house at the Whistle Stop Café as both homeowners and business owners listened to the city's presentation today, 9/17/09.

“The city's put forth a lot of effort this time to communicate with the businesses owners and homeowners in the area it's unfortunate that they couldn't do this two years ago when the started the project,” says business owner Eileen Schwarz. Some business owners say city officials are only stepping up commutations because a big railroad company, CSX is involved. City officials say, two years ago, they didn't have the ability to mass e-mail people in the neighborhood.

“We can hit a button and alert all the citizens at once in this area we didn't have that before, it has nothing to do with the railroad,” says Mobile City Council Vice President Fred Richardson.
This latest phase will put a drainage culvert underneath the railroad tracks and divert traffic onto and off of Dauphinwood Drive.

“It's a very large culvert and trying to coordinate and impact the travelling public and businesses as little as possible,” says Mobile City Engineer Nick Amberger. Some business owners say they continue to be frustrated by this project and aren't sure how this latest closure will affect them

“It's been going on for three years now and they've picked another holiday season to affect our businesses,” says Schwarz. Another business owner, Glynn Dykes, says the timing for this closure isn’t good.

“It's the middle of the tropical season and it's been raining everyday for three weeks now and it's going to continue to rain,” says Dykes. If the weather cooperates they should be done by November 14th. City officials say they're buying four billboards with this logo saying "Florida Street Businesses Are Open" to alert potential customers. You can look at a map of the detour here. It goes into effect Monday. Last year, about a dozen business owners sued the city over construction delays and a loss of business.