Downtown St. John's businesses have mixed reviews on current phase of Water Street 'Big Dig'
The road is torn up and the noise is plenty, but some of the businesses that line both sides of Water Street in downtown St. John's say it's not as bad as they expected.
"This isn't a big deterrent," said Derek Chafe, owner of William L. Chafe and Sons. "I mean, downtown, this infrastructure has to be done."
Crews are digging up Water Street between Bishop's Cove and Ayre's Cove, replacing the ancient infrastructure with new water and sewer lines. It's the latest phase in a five-year plan to replace the lines going down Water Street.
"Customers are always complaining about downtown. They'll get over it," Chafe laughed.
The work began a month ago, and there's two months of construction left to suffer through for the business owners and residents in the area.
"Our sales are down from the comparative period of the years past, so yeah it's definitely having in impact," said Dave Hopley, co-owner of Rocket Bakery.
While the street is partially closed to traffic and parking, it is open to pedestrians, so storefronts are all accessible.
But Hopley said the lunch rush is down, and there's fewer people venturing through the construction zone.
"We're going to suffer through it, I guess," he said. "We knew it was coming, we didn't exactly know how much of an impact it was going to be."
Down the road a little bit, Jenna Halleran has a different outlook at the Healthy Vibe.
"We really haven't seen a decrease at all," she said. "We kind of have some things here that people are looking for regardless of construction."
The Healthy Vibe is one of the cannabis retailers in the city, which might account for the store's steady traffic since legalization in October.
At the Heritage Shop at 309 Water St., supervisor Terry Ryan said she's also seen an impact from the construction.
"There's definitely a little bit of a decline, the numbers [of] sales are considerably down," she said.
Still, the occasional pedestrian strolls past the window and drops in to the shop, getting out of the noise of the construction zone outside.
"There's still a few, yes," she said. "A few determined souls."
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