By Anthony DeMatteo
Staff Writer
After 18 months of construction and several delays, Hendricks Avenue is nearing completion.
According to Kortney Mosley, spokesperson for the city of Jacksonville, the road will be repaired, two-laned and newly paved around the third week of January.
“We are all ready to see this job finished and have Hendricks Avenue restored,” she said.
One of the delays was caused by trolley ties found underneath the road, according to Mosley. The total cost of refurbishing the road comes to $1.66 million, she added. Work has stopped for the holidays, but will continue on Jan. 2.
Avenue merchants said they’re worried business lost during construction will not return.
“It is very hard for people to come here,” said Kouroush Salmani, manager of Touch Down Food Store. “We have lost business. I don’t know if it will come back to what it was.”
Carol Welch, president of the Creative Printing Place, said it has been hard for people to get to her business during the construction.
“We had women in high-heel shoes walk through ditches in the beginning,” she said. “And [then] the mailman couldn’t get through.”
Dan Welch, vice president of Creative Printing, worries that converting Hendricks from four lanes to two will cause traffic congestion.
“This road is already crammed with traffic,” he said. “It shouldn’t take long for the problems to start.”
Welch said some businesses have closed during the last year, a development he blames in part on the construction.
“We at least have off-street parking,” he said. “The ones that don’t, I don’t know how they have made it.”
Ed Carter, the owner of San Marco Produce, said he has invested $100,000 in the business since moving to his current location 13 months ago.
“I’ve yet to make any money,” he said. “People can’t see us, there’s so much distraction. We’re invisible. Most of the traffic avoids this area like the plague.”
Carter says the only reason he remains in business is anticipating a United States Post Office he said is scheduled to be built in the rear of his building.
“I don’t know how long I can survive,” he said. “My money supply is not unlimited.”
Mosley said despite the upheaval, the road has been passable during the repairs.
“They kept it going through some pretty heavy obstacles,” she said. “The good news is that we have the second to last layer of asphalt done. We will come back the first week in January and lay the final layer of asphalt and do the final striping.”
Mosley said other work remaining on Hendricks includes landscaping and installation of “historic” lighting.