Businesses along Delaware Avenue are feeling the effects of the damaged Interstate 55 overpass, with some saying they’ve lost half of their profits since the span closed Oct. 23, and they’re growing concerned as the closure drags on.
“We don’t know what to do,” said Sherry Garner, a clerk at the Marathon convenience store. “We are losing around 50% of our profits.”
Garner’s regular customers now only stop by on occasion.
“When they do stop by, they tell me that it’s just easier and cheaper on gas to stop elsewhere,” she said.
But somewhere else isn’t across the street at the B-Kwik Chevron, where owner Clifton Van Cleave also said business is down by about 40 to 50%. His store on Veterans Boulevard, one exit north of Delaware Avenue, isn’t making up for the loss, either, he said.
“Not even close,” Van Cleave said.
Garner said the closure has affected her own commute and she has to go out of her way just to get to work.
“It’s such a big inconvenience for me and for everyone having to get to work on time,” she said.
A Mississippi Department of Transportation spokesperson said Wednesday that repair work is expected to take place during the first or second week in December and will last three to four days, weather permitting.
McAlister’s Deli general manager Phillip Scheel said Tuesday, just as the work was beginning, that he was doubtful of the MDOT’s timeline, considering how little activity has taken place before this week.
“I do not see the bridge being fixed by January,” he said. “I drive past it every day and I don’t see any construction taking place. MDOT has a large office here in McComb; you’d think they would be making this a priority. Actions speak louder than words.”
The deli is losing around $5,500 a week, Scheel said, adding that deliveries are also affected by the closure.
“Our delivery trucks have to take Marion Avenue to get to us,” he said.
Scheel still sees his regular customers because they know how to navigate around the overpass, but he worries the longer the bridge goes unfixed, people might develop different shopping habits that lead them away from the deli.
“I fear once people get used to the bridge being out and the longer it takes to get fixed, people’s set patterns on where they shop and eat will become habit,” he said. “When the bridge does get fixed, months could pass by without them realizing it, and the shopping habits they formed when the bridge was out could still apply. And this will lead to weeks, or possibly months of loss for us and other businesses.”
Baymont Inn and Suites used to pull in at least three customers a night from Interstate 55, but that business is all but gone, Manager Wilson Chadala said.
“We have no night business,” he said. “Trucks would often stop here at night, but now that the exit is out, we have had a large drop in customers.”
Chadala said he knows construction takes time, but while the Baymont has no option but to wait it out, customers do have an option — go elsewhere.
Online reservations have also taken a hit, Chadala said: “We are getting a lot of calls from customers that can’t find us because the exit is out and they don’t know where to go.”
The disappointment is a recurring theme among businesses off Exit 17.
“While we still see our local customers, we are down 20-30%,” Baskin-Robbins owner Pat Brumfield said. “People coming from the interstate avoid the exit and this isn’t just hurting my business, it’s hurting everyone on Delaware Avenue.”
The businesses are at the mercy of MDOT’s construction timeline, and Brumfield thinks the situation needs to be declared an emergency, which would expedite contracts and repairs.
“The bridge needs to be fixed tomorrow,” he said. “It needs to be declared an emergency. The sales tax will lessen because Delaware is the main source of revenue. Repairs need to be made immediately.”
Buddy Powell, who owns the Golden Corral and Huey Magoo’s, says he hasn’t seen much of a difference in traffic at Golden Corral, but Huey Magoo’s has taken a hit in revenue.
“We are losing $3,000 to $4,000 a week. I’m disappointed, but it could be worse,” he said.
Fixing the bridge won’t settle all of his beef with MDOT. He’s even more disappointed that the lights that tower over the median, installed as a beacon for travelers and their money, keep going out and no one changes the bulbs.
“That’s even worse for business,” Powell said. “When it’s dark out and people want to stop, they stop where it’s the brightest and the safest.”
