BOSTON – Merchants in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood say they’ve seen a drop in business since construction began on Main Street, with businesses barely visible behind machines and orange cones.
Boston Water and Sewerage Department crews are working to maintain pipes in neighborhoods, but caution tape, noise and construction equipment are impacting small businesses in the area.
“This is the first customer we’ve had in two hours today, and I hate to say it, but we’ll never have another one,” Betty, an employee at the consignment store, told WBZ-TV.
“It puts some people out of business.”
Work is slow as construction is taking place right at the store’s main entrance, with workers crawling in and out of a huge hole in the road.
The front of On Again Consignment in Charlestown is hard to find, and even harder to get into. CBS Boston
“It’s not even blowing up right now, but you have to hear it. It’s blowing up all day,” the employee said.
“This is going to put some of us out of business,” Amanda Mitchell added.
Mitchell owns two businesses in Charlestown, both of which have been affected by construction.
“Nobody told us there would be construction,” she said outside her boutique, Place & Gather, and said she was surprised when she arrived at work to find a large hole in her front door.
“You come in the morning and there’s a big hole and the trail is closed all the way from there to around the corner,” Mitchell explained. “Guests on the Freedom Trail don’t know how to get down here.”
Boston says it will give residents two weeks’ notice
The Boston Water and Sewer Commission said it will notify businesses and residents by mail two weeks before work begins. Parking notices will be posted two days before work begins.
“The Boston Water and Sewer Commission (BWSC) sends notices to residents and businesses affected by infrastructure replacement or renovation (water, sewer and drainage systems) two weeks prior to the start of work. In addition to customer notices mailed to residents and businesses prior to work starting, contractors will post no parking notices on vehicles in the work zone 48 hours prior to work beginning. BWSC apologizes if businesses and residents did not receive notice of upcoming construction work,” said BWSC spokesman Tom Bagley.
“I was not informed until I got here,” Mitchell said. “This started last August.”
Mitchell explained that she understands that construction is necessary — she just wants some warning before she encounters a construction site outside her quaint boutique.
“It’s just communication. We want this work to happen. We just want a timeline.”
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