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Businesses, Homeowners Prepare For West Front Street Construction In Traverse City

Construction is underway in Traverse City and it’s an extensive project on West Front Street.

And work is not scheduled to be completed until October 20.

West Front Street will be closed for everyone except local traffic between Cedar Run Road and Elmwood Avenue.

And it will be closed completely between Elmwood and Division Street.

You will still be able to get to businesses and homes from side streets and alleys.

9&10’s Whitney Amann has more details on how businesses are working through it and learned some homeowners concerns.

“We’ll take care of our customers and our employees and we’ll get through it and it will be a better place afterwards,” said Rick Andrews, co-owner of Honest Eyes Optical.

Having the main access to your business closed for two and a half months could be frustrating but businesses along West Front Street are staying positive and being proactive.

“It will be great for the neighborhood, it will be great for the city and for now we just got to deal with it and not complain about it but work with each other to make it a manageable situation so yeah we’re going to do the best we can,” said Andrews.

And some businesses have added signs, cones and mirrors to help their customers navigate their way through the construction.

“We made up maps, everything was highlighted or crossed off where they wouldn’t be able to access so we’ve been trying to be as proactive as possible; letting our customers know we’re still here and open for business,” said Jason Gothard, manager at Ace Hardware.

Those living nearby have concerns about heavier traffic down their side streets.

“It’s going to affect a ton of people I mean with just kids being outside too; riding their bikes have to watch out, animals, people walking their dogs, people not paying attention because a lot of people do drive fast through here and it’s going to be quite busy,” said Bradley Jones.

While road, water line and sidewalk replacement could make travel tougher, a positive perspective helps.

“Kill it with kindness and say hey we’re all in this together so let’s do what we can to have a little bit of fun with it,” said Gothard.

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