Businesses brace for roundabout construction

Although visible construction on a forthcoming Main Street roundabout didn’t begin until Wednesday, Gena Marini was dealing with issues caused by the project nearly two weeks earlier.

Marini and her husband, Robert, are the owners of El Greco Café. The Mediterranean restaurant is located at the corner of Main Street and Orange Avenue, the intersection at which the city is working to install a roundabout over the next three months. A two-month intersection closure began Wednesday, but preliminary work by Florida Power and Light earlier this month led to power outages at El Greco.

"Our computer system fried," Marini said. "We had to start hand-writing checks; it was a nightmare trying to figure out communication between the back and the front."

That preliminary incident got cleared up, but matters were only made worse once the construction setup was in place. A green fence cordons off the construction area on both Main and Orange, narrowing the sidewalk and blocking access for vehicles traveling near one of the busier segments of the core of the city.

"It feels like a cage." — Gena Marini

Despite assurances from the city that construction would be relatively smooth, Marini already fears customers will stay away until the project is done.

"We feel like we’re trapped right now," Marini said. "It feels like a cage."

Wednesday morning, she says, the building was shaking as crews jackhammered the nearby street. The disruptive work continued until resident Bob Easterle, a patron of the restaurant, contacted City Manager Tom Barwin to complain about the disturbance during the lunch hours.

"I hope our regulars will overlook this tiny detail and continue to follow us," Marini said.

The closure will continue until Sept. 30, at which point limited traffic will be let through until the project’s completion in early November, according to a city release. The city scheduled the work to fall during a relatively slow period for city businesses, wrapping things up as soon as seasonal residents returned to Sarasota.

The city has recently embraced the installation of roundabouts, building three in the downtown area since 2010. City Engineer Alex DavisShaw says the roadway-management tools are effective for reducing congestion, among other benefits.

"Roundabouts are safer for pedestrians as well as motorists, plus they’re more aesthetically pleasing," DavisShaw said in a release.

Marini stressed that she still loves Sarasota, but was frustrated by the current state of affairs in the immediate vicinity of her business. Even for the summer, she said, the downtown area has felt a significant amount of pressure this summer. She pointed to the construction of the nearby State Street parking garage, which finally opened Wednesday afternoon after five months of delay.

Because of that, she thinks the project should have been put off until next year — although the city said they needed to take advantage of funding as it became available.

"Well, find some other project to do, not something that will not work for the businesses," Marini said.

Employee Insight

We talked to workers at other businesses to get feedback on the Main and Orange roundabout project:

"I think the closure will affect business a tremendous amount. New customers won’t be able to see our location. It’s dusty. Everything will affect it  — especially considering the amount of time the construction will take." — Maria Vazquez, Baltimore Snowball Factory

"I feel like (the roundabout) will help the flow of traffic a little bit more. I don’t think it’s going to affect our business— maybe it’ll pick up, because there will be more traffic flowing through the area and less congestion. I really don’t think it’s going to do anything to harm any of the businesses around here." — Samantha Loder, Drunken Poet Café