The province describes construction season as a means to uplift roads and highways, but down in Winnipeg, some projects are becoming a hindrance for locals.
An example of such is the construction work down in South Osborne, where nearby businesses said they’re feeling frustrated. The sentiment arises out of concern over the impact these projects have on a customer’s decision to head down to the business. Janis Urniezius, the owner of Park Line Coffee, said her frustrations have been brewing for quite some time now.
She added that the current project on Osborne Street has been going on since March. But having been in the area for six years now, she’s had to deal with three years’ worth of disruptions in the form of lane closures due to construction work.
“I think people are really tired of it. They just want it to be over with and finished,” said Urniezius. “You want to see your business grow; you want to see your numbers go up every year – so it’s frustrating. It’s noisy for people who want to sit outside and enjoy the short summer that we have.”
Urniezius said she had received a notice from public works about the project but emphasized that it did not state her section of the street would be under construction. She was under the impression that she and her business would be clear. But the minute the pylons went up, that changed, making things like parking a lot more difficult for her, the customers, and the general public.
There’s also frustration over the pace of the work. According to the Urniezius, workers are outside her shop only once or twice a week.
“There often isn’t any work being done. These pylons are here, the road has been ripped up, and then it’s been like that for months without any further progress,” said Urniezius.
For Park Theatre employee, Dan Grandmont, it’s a similar feeling of disdain.
With work continuing on for months, he said some of the bigger problems faced by the venue comes in the form of large tours. With people unable to park on the streets, Grandmont added that the business is left having to take permits to work in the back lane.
It’s something he said ends up upsetting people in the community.
“Even places that don’t have large volumes of people coming in… the big problem is they can’t park on the street in front of the building that they want to go to. They’re having to park blocks away,” said Grandmont. “The other thing that’s really frustrating about it is the fact that we have a lot of people that want parking and now they’re parking in the community. People in the community get really tired of cars on the streets all the time.”
Public works have said there are about 200 projects ongoing right now, which are paving 200 kilometers worth of roads, that are a single lane in width around the city.
Global News has reached out to public works about the ongoing project at Osborne Street. For some business owners, the hope is that work can just finish soon so that their operations aren’t impacted for the rest of the summer.
— With files from Global’s Katherine Dornian
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