MEDICINE HAT, AB — Construction season is slowly wrapping up.
The South Railway project downtown is in its final stages, in which crews have been working at replacing aging infrastructure underground.
But the road closures and construction traffic is having an impact on one local business.
The Post has seen a decrease in donations, sales and traffic. It’s something crews have noticed too and are working on making changes.
“The only portion that’s left now is right in the South Railway and 5th Street intersection,” said project manager Harlen Hippe.
The fourth and final stage of construction began on Monday.
“They’re just removing the asphalt and starting to do some exploratory excavation to get ready to put in new pipe, new sewer and storm pipe,” Hippe said.
New detour signs have been put up which let drivers know where they can and can’t go, seemingly directing drivers away from The Post.
Cori Fischer, executive director with the Canadian Mental Health Association, said they didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary when construction first began at South Railway and Second Street SE earlier this year, but the closer construction moved, the bigger impact it made.
“Our donations were down to just about zero yesterday,” she said. “We had very, very few donations and we haven’t had very many again today.”
Fischer said the thrift store normally sees between 15 and 20 bags of clothing and a few boxes of household items dropped off every day.
Construction crews also noticed the lack of traffic in the area and saw the parking lot sat nearly empty.
Once CHAT News brought up the issue with the CMHA, a plan was put into motion.
“We’re actually having additional signs made that point them into this parking lot,” said Hippe, adding that the signs were expected to be posted Tuesday afternoon.
“I’m thrilled that the city and the construction company and everybody that’s involved is recognizing the impact and the importance of the business,” Fischer said after hearing the news.
But the construction detours seems to have drivers confused. Some seem to think the alley between The Post and St. Barnabas Anglican Church is part of the detour.
“The concern that I have, it’s a very narrow back alley. It’s where we have our garbage as well as some of our recycling so I have staff going out there on a fairly regular basis with garbage and recycling,” Fischer said. “With it being so narrow, I’m really concerned about their safety as well as anyone else.”
“The alley is not meant to have two-way traffic going down it and we want to discourage that,” Hippe said.
Hippe mentioned they haven’t received any formal complaints about the back lane but said they will take action if any are brought forward.
