Edwardsville interchange of Interstate 64 in Floyd County is done, and has been completed for several weeks.
The project was supposed to have completed in November 2009 according to the original estimates, but the project wasn’t completed until late this past spring.
The initial construction time period, as well as the extra construction time, affected the businesses in the Edwardsville area differently, depending on the location and nature of the business.
Korner Kitchen and Pub is right at the corner of State Road 64 and North Luther Road, and had seen their business volume drop during the construction.
As co-owner Gary Loftus said, “We were really slow during the construction; there was a long dry spell. We have a lot of traffic going through there now. Everything looked bad for a while there.”
Loftus estimated that it took some potential customers an extra 45 minutes to an hour to get off of the exit ramps from I-64 to his restaurant and pub, and he thinks that a lot of them simply decided to not wait the extra time while the construction was ongoing.
He sees the area as better than before though, now that construction is over. “It’s in good shape now,” he added. “They’ve got a good traffic flow.”
Floyd Central Thriftway Store Manager Dennis Roudenbush saw the store drop in business volume during the construction phase as well, but he said that the traffic in his store is “on the way back up. It’s headed in the right direction.”
He said some customers shopping in the evening probably took different back roads due to the interchange construction, and ended up going to a different supermarket, at least for a while.
He added that the customers seem to be coming back now, and said, “We’re close to where we were before the construction began. I’m pretty happy with where we’re at right now, compared with where we were at three months ago.”
Close to Korner Kitchen and Pub is Mister Hardware, and employee George Voll said that business was down somewhat there during the work on the interchange.
A lot of long time customers would take different routes to Mister Hardware, going “out of their way to get here, taking different routes…it was tough for them.”
He said the regular customers coming from the west on State Road 64 around and in Georgetown had no trouble; it was the customers normally getting to his store off of I-64, where the road work was being done.
Voll also sees the business traffic in his store getting back to normal levels now. “It took a little while, but it’s back to normal. It’s a lot free flowing.”
Voll just wishes that there was a left turn signal where east bound State Road 64 turns left in to the shopping center where Mister Hardware is at on North Luther Road.
The Drug Store owner Lynne Freiberger said that “the traffic flow was decidedly less” while construction on the I-64 interchange was ongoing, but that it didn’t affect her customers too much, since they deliver to their customers.
It did affect walk in customers, but she sees business basically normal now.
Gas and Stuff, a combination food mart and Marathon station next to The Drug Store, was hurt by the construction, because the temporary traffic lanes in the construction zone on State Road 64 were narrower than the now completed lanes, and since they got so much fuel business from semi trailer trucks. The semis had trouble navigating the narrower lanes during construction.
Since the work has been completed, an employee who identified herself as “Kaylee” said that “our business has picked up.”
“We’ve had more traffic; some days it’s really good,” Kaylee added.
A few businesses that are either nearer to Georgetown, or actually in Georgetown, haven’t really seen any change in their businesses.
Georgetown Feed and Farm Supply, which sells Kent Feeds, said that they saw few ill effects.
An employee who identified himself as “Mark” said, “We were far enough away, it didn’t affect us.”
Jecker’s Body Shop is nearly two miles to the west from the I-64 interchange, closer to Georgetown. Owner Tom Jecker said that “overall, I wasn’t too affected by it.” Jecker said that it was a bit more inconvenient for his parts suppliers, and getting his parts on time, but he thinks the trouble was woth the inconvenience.
“Now it’s great,” Jecker said, “we look forward to serving our customers.”
The improvements to the I-64 interchange at Edwardsville include lighting in the area of the entrance and exit ramps, extra lanes in the exit ramps, improvements to State Road 62 and State Road 64 in the immediate area of the interchange (especially in the medians), and improved drainage.