Bank Street businesses will have to brace for another season of construction next spring.
Bank Street will be closed from Arlington Street to Somerset Street for approximately eight months, starting in April.
During the closure, the city will repave the road, replace sewers, construct a new watermain, and add street signs and trees.
Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes says she’s concerned how businesses will cope with another large-scale construction project.
“They’ve had the Bank and Somerset intersection closed for six months and then, during the last year, they’ve had north of Somerset Street on Bank closed,” she says. “It’s always difficult for businesses to have these streets closed.”
The city proposes closing the entire eight blocks of Bank Street between Arlington and Somerset streets while keeping the cross streets open, converting one- way traffic into two-way traffic.
The sidewalks will remain open during construction says project manager Luke Foley.
“The priority is to maintain pedestrian traffic in the area,” he says. “We will keep the existing concrete sidewalks in place for as long as we can to ensure that there’s still good pedestrian flow and access to businesses.”
Jane Wyatt, owner of Book Bazaar, which will fall in the construction zone, says she expects the city to do its best to accommodate pedestrians. But Wyatt says she is worried about how the street closure will affect her customers that drive.
“There are there are a lot of customers that do drive,” she says. “The overall perception that goes along with construction influences people not to come downtown. It’s the perception that ‘oh they’re digging up the road, so I’m not going to go.’”
Wyatt says instead of closing off the entire stretch of eight blocks, the city should consider working on a couple of blocks at a time.
Holmes says business owners will have a chance to give input on the specifics of the plan, including if they want to close the whole street or leave one lane open.
“If they decide to leave one lane open, the construction will take longer, but that’s up to them,” Holmes says.
Holmes says the meeting will be sometime in March.