By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
The contractor in charge of replacing Runyon Creek bridge expects the project to be done by August, but business owners on River Road hope it’s done long before then.
The owners of Shop-Eze Sentry Hardware and Fish-n-Stuff and the store manager of the Piggly Wiggly on River Road have reported significant drops in business since construction on the bridge started May 27, 2009.
John Langley, who has owned the neighborhood hardware store for 47 years, said his business has dipped 20 to 25 percent since the bridge has been closed. Pat Kleve, owner of Fish-N-Stuff seafood market, said his business is down some 30 to 40 percent.
“I blame it on the bridge, but also the economy,” he said.
Langley said his hardware store was also seeing decreased traffic even before the replacement project started.
“(Business) was down from the economy anyways,” he said.
Langley didn’t offer a solution to the traffic problem caused by the bridge closing. He said he’ll just try to hold on to the business he still has until it reopens.
“There ain’t nothing else left to do,” he said.
John Gooch said every business on River Road has lost customers to the bridge closing, including the Piggly Wiggly he oversees.
“We’ve had a dramatic dip in customer count,” he said.
Which, in turn, has forced the grocery store to take some cost saving measures.
“We began by cutting out expenses — labor and payroll. We have very little part-time help,” Gooch said.
The store manager said his main goal is to keep his customers and full-time employees satisfied until the bridge is complete.
“The plan is to come out smiling when it reopens,” he said.
Gooch said some customers from Washington continue to shop at the grocery store even with a detour that goes around Runyon Creek from John Small Avenue to Brick Kiln Road to River Road.
“We have a strong customer base,” Gooch said. “They still come and support us, but they don’t come as much.”
“It’s more of a drive,” he said.
Gooch said before the bridge project started, his grocery store got a lot of traffic from the Washington neighborhoods south of East Fifth Street and east of Market Street.
“We had the downtown area. We were the closest grocery store,” he said.
Gooch said these same shoppers are probably buying their groceries within the Washington city limits, now.
“It’s not that folks quit buying groceries,” he said.
The business owners and store manager all said they were surprised with the length of time it will take to complete the bridge.
“It’s amazing to me how long it takes to do something like that,” Kleve said.
Bridge Project Manager Bobby Culbertson said his company, Sanford Contractors, has a contract with the N.C. Department of Transportation that runs through August.
“I’ve been telling anybody it’ll be done in August,” he said. “But I’m hoping my guys will be out by the end of June.”
Culbertson said it’s hard to guess when the bridge will be complete considering the recent changes in weather.
“A schedule is hard to keep up with in the wintertime,” he said. “It depends on this time of year.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Culbertson said the deck of the bridge was poured, but work on the guard rails had just begun.
“The bridge is pretty much cut and dry, but the classic rail is very time consuming,” he said.
The project manager said it would take another 14 weeks to finish the intricate guard rails.
In the meantime, businesses along River Road will try to hold on.
“I’m sure it’s taken a toll on everybody,” Kleve said. “When the bridge opens back up, I’m going to advertise to get business back here. I’ll hold on until then.”