Road Closures From Yolo County Courthouse Construction Worry Business Owners
WOODLAND (CBS13) — A construction project in Woodland that has closed part of Main Street has restaurant and shop owners worried about their bottom line.
The work has the road closed between East and Fifth streets as part of the new courthouse construction, and it's expected to run through the end of April.
While the heavy lifting and digging has stopped for the day, the woman working at a Western store says the construction outside her door felt like an earthquake.
Alyssa Cliff thought items were going to fly off the shelf this morning as crews tore up the street.
"The whole floor is shaking, it feels like an earthquake. It really does," she said.
Lights could be seen flickering as the pavement was pummeled out front.
"When you're a business on Main Street, and they shut down Main Street, and your customers can't get to you, how are you going to buy your products, how are you going to stay open? It's scary," she said.
Aside from the shaking, that's the biggest concern. The four-block stretch of Main Street will be closed for six weeks, leaving some shops with no customers on their busiest days of the year.
Fresh Cuts owner Omar Herrera is a few blocks away from the construction and says the city gave businesses plenty of warning. He says it's too early to tell if the detours and closures will take a little or a lot off the top of his profits.
"Who knows? I wont be able to tell now until maybe a week or so," he said.
He says he's in a better position than some since he's not necessarily relying on tourist foot traffic.
"It's kinda like they will find a way to get here, they have to do what they gotta do. They won't miss out on a haircut, I'll tell ya that," he said.
As for Cliff, the single mother hopes people are able to find the store, because if sales slump too much, her boss has warned she could start losing hours.
"If she's got to scale back, we're part of that scaling back," she said.
