Suffering businesses just want the council and contractor Fulton Hogan to speed up stage one of the $46 million upgrade of Gerald St, and finish it well before it is scheduled in July.
Otherwise some fear they will not survive.
There was hope a briefing of councillors on the issue last week by council management would have given businesses some hope. But nothing concrete came out of it.
"We are losing hope we can survive this,” Cottage Cafe owner Surekha Pudi told Selwyn Times.
The only thing that will make a real difference is getting the work done faster, she said.
She has already let one staff member go.
Council infrastructure and property executive director Tim Mason told Selwyn Times on Monday all options to accelerate the work were being investigated.
“A range of options will be considered including, but not limited to, road closures, partial closures, weekend and night working and extended day hours,” he said.
"The construction timeline has been carefully sequenced to coordinate installation of underground services, manage traffic safely, align with supplier lead times, and ensure specialist crews can work safely and efficiently without repeated remobilisation.
"Adjusting this sequencing can trigger delays, additional costs, and extended disruption for businesses and road users, so changes are made only when they genuinely reduce impact.”
People spoken to by Selwyn Times have questioned if the impact on businesses was factored in when the council entered the contract for the upgrade.
"It’s nuts they are not working at the weekend. It’s putting people’s livelihoods and the jobs of their staff on the line,” one said.
Council head of capital works David Spriggs told councillors at the briefing last week getting the community to support the businesses would have a bigger impact than speeding up the project. “Getting the community on board and asking them to come back and support their retailers will have the biggest impact,” he said.
But Pudi said that statement was odd, as locals were supporting businesses. It was the drive through traffic which did not know where to park because of the road works.
"Already the local community is trying to support us, but we are losing the traffic coming in from outside Lincoln.”
Spriggs told the briefing the council was looking at promotional ideas to attract customers. One included a stamp scheme where people can collect stamps by shopping at businesses on Gerald St and enter a prize draw. An Easter egg scavenger hunt during the April school holidays was a possibility.
But Lincoln Convenience Store owner Rick Sun said those promotions would not work for his store.
"We are a convenience shop. If people cannot get to the shop easily, they will not come.”
Sun said he has lost about 70% of his turnover, and was unsure if he could stay open until July.
Barnsley said the council was looking at ways to reduce the impact on businesses.
"We would obviously like to improve the situation for the community and for those local businesses, and so staff are looking outside the box to see if there are ways we can move forward that are going to be less of an impact,” she said.
Carrick and McGlinchy did not return calls from Selwyn Times. Stage one of the redevelopment will cost about $10.4m and include a plaza area to replace the angled car parks outside shops.
It will also include new cycle lanes, multiple pedestrian crossings, and traffic lights at the Gerald St and West Belt intersection.
After stage one, work is expected to start on a major hospitality and retail precinct, called Lincoln Village, on the corner of Gerald and Robert Sts.
Work on the precinct is planned to start in the middle of the year and will be completed in five stages over two to four years.
