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U.S. Highway 75 construction pushes down surrounding business sales
Chris Beattie/Staff Photo - Construction of the U.S. Highway 75-Eldorado Parkway interchange has prevented easy access to businesses on both sides of the highway. Particularly restaurant owners say such detours have resulted in fewer customers.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
Drivers passing through construction on the U.S. Highway 75-Eldorado Parkway interchange may have their patience tested once or twice a day, but they're likely not as frustrated as surrounding businesses.
As traffic is detoured up, down and around Eldorado along the U.S. 75 frontage roads, going north and south, the inconvenience is turning away customers.
"It's had a tremendous impact," said Al Ramos, general manager of the El Fenix restaurant south of Eldorado at Craig Drive and South Central Expressway. "What's going to hurt us more is when they close this frontage road."
The single-point urban interchange, modeled after TxDOT's similar project at Parker Road and U.S. 75 in Plano, is designed to relieve congestion at the Eldorado-U.S. 75 intersection. But for several months now, highway motorists who wish to visit shopping centers on the southbound side near Eldorado have had to drive about two miles north to Virginia Parkway and come back around.
The interchange is the most complicated piece of a projected 40-month undertaking that's about 25 percent complete, said Barry Heard, TxDOT's Collin County engineer.
The entire project, which began in January, will add two lanes on each side of U.S. 75 and one lane to the corresponding frontage roads between Sam Rayburn Tollway and U.S. Highway 380.
There were conflicting reports this summer the interchange would be partially open this fall and completely open by January, but Heard said that's not the case. TxDOT expects to complete the current phase by then, but traffic will not be on the new bridge until sometime this spring, he said.
"By around this time next year is when the interchange will be more into the shape of what it used to be," he said. "The whole intersection will not be fully functional until the entire project is done about two years from now."
Thus, like oft-stalled motorists, businesses overlooking the construction will have to wait it out. Management at Razzoo's Cajun Café, which opened about a year ago just south of Eldorado off Central Expressway, said sales began dropping significantly about 30 to 45 days after construction commenced. The restaurant's sales are down by about 30 percent.
El Fenix, situated just south of Razzoo's, has seen about a 10 percent sales dip, Ramos said, well below the 13-percent hike it experienced when the U.S. 75-Sam Rayburn Tollway interchange was complete. And managers at both restaurants say the biggest problem is convenience - potential customers don't want to maneuver their way to a quick lunch or dinner.
"Our goal is to maintain existing traffic while under construction, and that's pretty much what we're doing," Heard said. "Some areas are harder to get around, and there are detours, but (traffic volume) hasn't really changed."
Though Ramos said he just found out about the impending frontage road closure, the McKinney city staff and TxDOT officials have tried to maintain constant communication, particularly to businesses, said Anna Clark, city spokeswoman.
On May 25, as construction was amped up, the city sent to hundreds of property and business owners a letter notifying them of accessible email updates and website notifications that would continue throughout the multi-year project. About 400 email addresses receive such regular updates, which correspond with TxDOT updates, Clark said.
The city's Engineering Department meets weekly with TxDOT to stay informed on upcoming changes. John Valencia, director of business retention and expansion for the McKinney Economic Development Corporation, relays such notices to affected businesses, Clark said.
"Things change so quickly," she said. "There are so many different working parts to this, that's why Engineering meets every week and [Communications] helps them get the word out."
Business at some surrounding retail stores has stayed mostly the same. Employees at Chico's, a clothing and accessories store at Eldorado Plaza (northwest corner of the U.S. 75-Eldorado Parkway intersection), said the construction has affected the area as a whole but not really their store. They said existing customers know they're still open - as a "Businesses Open" sign at the plaza entrance points out - so the construction only affects new or potential customers.
Subtly Southwest, a smaller jewelry and accessories store that opened next to Chico's in January, has no pre-construction comparison in terms of sales, but owner Norma Talbott said other retailers and restaurants have expressed the impact.
"It's made the traffic faster and a little more hazardous through here," Talbott said. "I've had customers who've been to see us say, 'We'll be back after the construction's done.'"
Talbott said business owners were told the Eldorado bridge would be complete before Christmas, an expectation that seems unlikely at this point. She and others are already looking forward to that day.
"Once it's all up, sure, it will be great," Ramos said. "But it's not here yet."
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