Government Road construction mayhem stretched northward this week, flaring tempers among residents and businesses unsure of what to expect from one day to the next.
Since July, the sewer line improvement project on Government Road between Mamquam Road and Garibaldi Way has reduced traffic to one lane, either southbound or northbound.
Construction continues until October and changes sporadically over the course of a day, which has dramatically impacted the businesses lining the construction zone.
That now includes Brackendale residents and businesses up to Depot Road who, and on Sept. 16, received notification on their doors stating access to Brackendale will only be via Depot Road, creating a six-kilometre detour for anyone travelling southbound.
Most business owners acknowledge the work needs to be done, but they're extremely frustrated by the way the District of Squamish has dealt with the impact. Some are suggesting compensation.
Howe Sound equipment owner Chris Thompson said he's fed up with the barriers to his business, the noise and the project in general. His driveway faces onto Government Road near Garibaldi Way and he said the construction is keeping customers at bay.
"With the traffic stoppages every morning and all throughout the afternoon, of course customers don't come because they can't go freely and efficiently," he said.
"There's several dump trucks and all kinds of machinery outside everyday - it's your basic construction zone five feet away."
He said business has been slow since the project started, and he's had customers phoning him asking him to deliver items to avoid the nuisance.
"Right now as it stands people that absolutely have to get in here are parking in the Burger King parking lot, hopping the fence and coming over because it's too much of a pain to drive around," he said.
"One day it's open one way and the next day it's not - there's not any real consistency in the traffic pattern and people get too frustrated and confused."
This lack of consistency is also frustrating Denise Imbeau, Greg Gardner GM business development manager.
"On any given day they're changing the road construction - when you come in one way for several weeks and then one day you come in and they say you have to use the other one, it takes a 15-minute detour."
She said at least she should be able to tell a client coming to the shop that day which road to take, but she's often misinformed.
"What I'd like to see is all the parties come together, whether it's the district and the business community as a whole, to come together with some ground rules," she said.
"Most of Squamish's infrastructure is about 40 years old so I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this [construction] so we may as well come up with a system."
Until two weeks ago, there were no signs in place to remind drivers the businesses on Government Road were still open - in fact, Mountain FM warned drivers to stay off Government Road altogether.
"Do I think they should have done things better? I sure do," said Imbeau. "I think from the beginning they should have had the signs up that say businesses open - it only happened after I became excited."
Despite her frustration, Imbeau said there's no culprit and the project needs to get done.
"I've been living this for a month and it is incredibly frustrating but there's no one person you can lay the blame on," she said.
"Everybody has said to me 'If you can tell me what you want or need, we'll do it,' but what I want and need is that I'd rather not have a 20-foot hole in front of my driveway, and that's not a possibility."
Harris Road resident Nicole Trigg lives in a basement suite and didn't receive the notification. On her way to work, she had no option but to head north to Depot Road and then resume her commute downtown.
"It's really annoying and because we didn't get the notice I don't even know how long this will go on for," she said. "I can turn at Garibaldi Way to get to my house, but to leave I have to drive an extra 10 minutes."
She said alternative traffic control should be considered.
"There's still one lane open so what they could potentially do is a one-way bridge where they let cars through one way and then the other, or alternate mornings and afternoons," said Trigg.
Trigg did, however, make a non-routine stop on her way to work at Bean Around the World coffee shop, a café she would normally not have stopped at.
Cafe owner Steve Klassen said his coffee shop might gain new customers forced to pass by, but he's more worried about losing his regular customers.
"Even with the Government Road construction [further south] over the past month I've been affected," he said. "There's no one heading up this way from Amblepath or Viking Ridge for coffee, that's for sure."
Business is based on convenience, he said, so someone from Judd Road who typically stops in every day won't for the next month, and that might change their habits permanently.
"It's not like groceries, which you have to get," he said.
"You don't have to go out, you don't have to get a coffee, you don't have to do these things so even based on the impact on the traffic flow, we're losing out because of accessibility."
Klassen said it will be difficult to determine how much business they'll lose.
"You can't measure people that don't come in, you just don't know. I could compare to last year's numbers but unrealized business is not measurable."
He and The Nest Restaurant co-owner Todd Good arranged a meeting engineering director Brian Barnett to discuss what could be done.
"I just explained to him that I don't know how I'm going to recuperate the loss I suffered on Saturday and Sunday, it's a direct hit from that [the detour]," said Good. "I was down probably about $1,500 on the weekend."
Good said Barnett apologized and asked what he could do to fix the situation.
"Pretty much, he said 'What can I do? I can't give you money or give you a break on your taxes but what can I do?'"
Good and Klassen requested the same consideration as the Shady Tree, the Watershed Grill and the Greyhound bus depot, which enjoyed a sign with their names on it on Government Road adjacent to The Nest. Good said seeing the sign and not having one for his business was a "slap in the face."
"We want more signage up with our business names on there rather than just 'Businesses are open,'" said Good. "[The district] is going to have a radio ad and an ad in the newspaper saying we're open with our business names."
There should be a specific procedure followed every time construction impacts businesses, said Good, most notably, sufficient notice should be provided.
"Everything needs to be adjusted - we order all our food in for the weekends, we have a specific number of staff."
