CLEVELAND — Business owners along Carnegie Avenue in Cleveland are fed up with construction on the road.
The City of Cleveland began working on the busy road in June 2024. The project consists of replacing water mains, construction and repaving. Currently, cones line the eastbound lanes from East 55th to East 79th streets.
Those cones block drivers from visiting many local businesses that line the street. Owners are feeling the pain.
"This is the worst year we've had in 60 years," Lenny Weiss, co-owner of Bee Clean Car Wash, said.
Angie's Soul Cafe's Marque Jeter and Shell Gas Station Owner Rubin Swift said they are feeling it, too. Swift said he and other businesses have seen such a dip in sales that he fears many businesses will be gone before construction wraps on Carnegie.
"It's at the point where we're going to have to go out of business," he said. "People are going to have to start getting laid off."
With the owners seeing very little construction activity on the street, they're asking the city to open up the street in the hopes of getting their customers back.
"No one is out there working," Swift said. "There's just cones out. They haven't dug anything out. We're basically saying open back up the streets. When you get the people to do the work, then close it back down."
The city says it's not that simple. In an email, a city spokesperson tells News 5 that crews are working on installing a water main in the area. They said it was an intersection-by-intersection process, so there may appear to be inactivity in some areas.
It doesn't seem like opening those completed intersections is an option, either. In that same email, the city never directly responded to questions about opening up completed intersections. Instead, they mentioned placing signs along the route to remind people that the businesses are still open.
An option these owners aren't interested in.
"We have to have the street open," Weiss said. "There is no other option."
The owners are requesting flaggers be placed in the area.
"Close one lane and open the other," Swift said. "We need up and down. We don't have that. We're hurting."
The city said the project is on track for completion in October of this year.
