Hooray! December 22, 2009 12th Street is open! Construction finally done, but for some it may be too late By CHARLES F. TRENTELMAN Standard-Examiner staff ctrentelman@standard.net OGDEN — After almost closing off one of Weber County's busiest roads for most of 2009, the reconstruction of 12th Street is essentially finished. The construction cones and barriers came down over the weekend and the road is open, but at least one business along it, Jumbo Burgers, said Monday the opening may not have been in time. "We are trying, but business cannot help because construction was too long, they took too long," said Pervaiz Bhatti, owner of Jumbo Burger at 141 12th St. "We have good stuff, but we have no money to pay the bills." UDOT rebuilt 12th Street from Washington Boulevard "I talked to Jumbo Burger, I know Village Inn has been hurt. Arby's has been hurt. Even Wells Fargo, their business has gone down on how many accounts have opened up. "Frankly, I don't blame people, because it has been a mess, But the past two days the barricades are gone, and we want the people back. We've got a great little theater here — low, low prices on candy and popcorn." Zack Kap, who works at the Maverik Store at the intersection of 12th and Wall, said the construction "totally put a damper, I mean totally, on everything. "We've had to cut back on employee hours. It's affected us to the poinfthat it's affected everyone's pay, and now they're talking about putting a median in from 12th and Wall all the way to I-Hop." west to Interstate 15, completely tearing up the old pavement and building new concrete roadway and all new utility work. The result is a wider road with wider shoulders that UDOT says shouldn't need major work for 40 years. Construction began in October 2008. UDOT spokesman Vic Saunders said it was hoped construction would be done by Oct. 15 of this year, but the contractor had until Dec. 31. The later finish was needed because of additional utility work, Saunders said, which should guarantee no work at all on the road for at least five years. There will be some finish work in the spring, Saunders said, including landscaping and some medians, but work is essentially done. He admitted that construction "plays a role" when businesses are hurting, but said the worsened economy also plays a part. He said UDOT did its best to keep access to all businesses open and took out several major newspaper ads to remind customers that those businesses were still open. Despite all that, several businesses say they were badly damaged. Julie Thompson, manager of The Pointe Theaters, 151 12th St., said her theaters lost half their business and she knows of at least one restaurant that went bust. The Pointe Theaters opened as a second-run discount movie theater a year ago. She said business was going well until the construction season of 2009 started in April. Then it plunged. "When we opened, we had a great welcoming attendance from Ogden," Thompson said. A normal Saturday then was 700 to 800 people, she said, and since construction it's more like 300. 128 Saunders said the median is being installed to control traffic making left turns. The intersection at 12th and Wall will now have double left- hand turn lanes, he said, and the median is to keep people in line after they make their turn. They do allow people to go farther, then make a U- turn and double back if they have to, he said. He said the medians shouldn't be a sur prise because they were in the original plans. Bhatti, at Jumbo Burger, said he is hoping the reopened road will save his business, but sounded pessimistic. "We are dying actually. We are in big trouble," he said. "We've been dead since the construction, the bank is bothering us. Now it's Christmas and they (UDOT) open the road, but we have been down like 80 percent ... they should have opened it a couple of months ago. We have been slammed." The construction came at a particularly bad time for him, he said, because he bought his business' building a year ago. "I took money from my house, we gonna be on the street," he said. "We got big trouble here — we need business a lot. Big trouble here."