'It's terrible': Some Montague business owners feeling the pain from 2nd summer of roadwork
CBC
Some businesses in Montague have been seeing fewer customers recently, blaming a second straight summer of roadwork for the loss of shoppers in the eastern P.E.I. community.
The P.E.I. government began work on June 20 on a stretch of road just north of the Down East Mall. The pavement is being milled and only a single lane of alternating traffic can get by at a time, with the project scheduled to end by July 31.
"The work includes constructing left-turn lanes on Route 4 and Robertson Rd, repaving, stormwater system replacement, constructing an active transportation trail and signalizing the intersection," the province said in a notice on its website.
It feels like déjà vu to Darren Dingwell, owner of the restaurant Dinger's Dive. He said sales this past winter outpaced revenue from last summer because the usually busy season was so bad due to road construction. Now he's dreading another dip.
"Last year was tough, with the roadwork construction that was taking place. [It] was really hard on us, and it wasn't looking that great, winter was coming, close to Christmas, and then something changed — and it wasn't the GST… break," he said.
"People just started coming, and [the] sales went up, so our sales in January were better than the sales in July the previous year. That's just unheard of in this industry."
Appreciating the support from local diners, Dingwell was looking forward to the weather warming up, until he heard about the new round of road construction.
"It was kind of a punch in the gut, if I'm honest, because I thought, 'Here we go again,'" he said.
Now that the work is underway, he said the disruption seems even worse than last year's.
Dingwell said the ongoing work is making people avoid Montague, which is the largest community in the amalgamated municipality of Three Rivers.
"It's terrible. People are bypassing Montague. They're not coming into Montague during the day at all because of the roadwork that is taking place," he said.
Dingwell said he is not the only one in the area dealing with this problem, saying others have even considered relocating.
"I've heard businesses talking about moving to Stratford because of this, because of the mismanagement that happens in the town, which is sad," he said.
Frank Dourte, the manager of The Turning Point Health Food Store, said he is able to see the toll of lost customers with a glance at his inventory system.
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