FeedsBusinesses brace for bridge brouhaha
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A construction worker navigates equipment making the final preparations to start the Sheldon Road Underpass Project. Sheldon Road will be closed for a period of two years.Officials in Plymouth and Plymouth Township are preparing for November 2008—but they are not preparing to elect a President.
The highly anticipated and controversial Sheldon Road Underpass project will get started on Dec. 12, closing Sheldon Road in both directions for 23 months.
While some look at the underpass project as an early Christmas present, there are business owners who view it as a huge lump of coal.
“Any time a major highway that brings people to your community is shut down it’s detrimental,” said Fran Toney, executive director of the Plymouth Community Chamber of Commerce.
Toney is concerned with the businesses along Sheldon Road; particularly the independent businesses not associated with major chains and factories that rely on drivers to deliver goods. However, she feels the end result of having cars and trains travel simultaneously without interference is worth the closure.
“The completed underpass is a benefit to the entire Plymouth community,” Toney said.
Bill Sorenson, the owner of the Nassau Grille and Bar, said that the Sheldon Road Underpass Project is a great idea, if it had happened in the late 90s.
Sorenson said he recalls hearing many complaints from his patrons who were forced to wait behind a seemingly endless stream of trains impeding their progress. Now, the only complaint he hears is how the Dec 12. road closure will impact neighboring businesses.
Sorenson is deeply concerned not only with the logistical issues surrounding a 23-month road closure, but the validity of the project itself. He wonders if Wayne County and others involved in the project are using late 1990s data projections.
“Has anyone conducted a current study on the impact trains have on traffic at Sheldon Road,” he wanted to know. Sorenson questions taking on a project that will put dozens of businesses in peril.
“Take a good look around Sheldon Place: someone will not be here in two years.”
Elected officials said there hasn’t been a recent study, but that doesn’t mean the project is unnecessary.
“Train traffic has died down in the area, but we don’t know what will happen 10 years from now,” said Plymouth Mayor Dan Dwyer. He said he looks at the project as preventative medicine—in case the need for train delivery increases in future.
Alan Helmkamp, assistant executive of Wayne County Public Services, said he could not recall when the last study was taken but he remembers officials from CSX giving statistics on train traffic to elected officials in the City of Plymouth and Plymouth Township.
Helmkamp said, while not trying to sound cavalier about their plight, that some residents and business owners are “just crying sour grapes at the 11th hour,” a week before the road closure.
“Both the Plymouth City Commission and Plymouth Township Board of Trustees voted to support this project,” he said. He also said the county and other organizations invested a substantial amount of money into the project.
“Wayne County invested more than $2 million into the underpass project along with other entities,” said Helmkamp. “The project is a good idea.”
