Road construction in front of wash

[portski]

Hi guys, haven't been on in quite some time! Hope all is well with everyone.
Anybody had any experience with the town doing road work that is scheduled to take a long period of time? I am anticipating this could possibly devastate us. Is there any type of insurance that can be obtained for this?

 

[mjwalsh]

Hi guys, haven't been on in quite some time! Hope all is well with everyone.
Anybody had any experience with the town doing road work that is scheduled to take a long period of time? I am anticipating this could possibly devastate us. Is there any type of insurance that can be obtained for this?

Portski,

Are you on a corner lot? When they put new pipes in --- our city insisted on testing an 6-10 block stretch of pipe which meant several months of no access in front of our facility. It was an extremely tough situation. We did stay open by putting up huge signs & rerouting the cars over our narrow boulevard. Being on a corner helped.

That was over 25 years ago --- hopefully they have a better way nowadays.
Not sure about that type of insurance --- it seems like the insurance people can have a lot of exclusions when it comes to things like that.

MJ

 

[Whale of a Wash]

I have went thru this scenario four times. One took all summer and made business impossible. Lost water unexpectedly for up to 5 hrs. -- Street reconstructions are impossible, and now pay big specials to pay for the streets.
Every construction project had me hooked up on temporary lines, I have lost tons of business. The city made signs for me but customers were not that eager to go on a funny made road to wash their car. One time they put asphalt grindings in lawn to drive into wash from another direction as street was missing. I tried super low prices to attract customers--didn't help much.
I am usually quite positive about things but, only a few solutions One is do all the projects you always wanted to get done. Close for the summer, or drink copious amounts of alcohol to ease the pain.

 

[Randy]

A couple of years ago they rebuilt the road in front of my wash. As long as they give you access to your property/business they don’t have to compensate you for anything. You’re open for business. In my case they widened the road to 3 lanes and added sidewalks. The road was nothing more than a trail or jeep road, but you could still get to the businesses. It was that way for about 7 or 8 months. I lost about 35 – 40% of my business during that time. I don’t think there is any kind of insurance for road improvements. The next year when I got my property taxes, all the new road/sidewalk improvements added about $500 a year to my property taxes.

 

[rph9168]

I was GM of a wash that experienced 8 months of road construction. Business was down about 40% and it took us over a year to get back to pre-construction numbers. Unfortunately I think our competitors really took advantage of the situation.

 

[portski]

No we are not on a corner. It is a widening of the road and reconstruction of new sidewalks. We are being told that our businesses will always have access to them from the road, they are going to do it ones side at a time and in sections.
Of course you wouldn't build a car wash on a dirt road, so this is my concern is how tore up its going to be and how much traffic will avoid the area all together during this.
I know we are going to take a hit, just hope it isn't a knock out punch

 

[rph9168]

You hit on a major part of the problem - people start avoiding your street. We saw at least a 40 to 50% drop in traffic. They told us the same thing about doing half at a time and in sections. Seemed like the section in front of our wash took forever. I wish I could have better news but that is what we experienced.

 

[soapy]

Like others have said you will loose around 50% of your business and will take over a year to regain the business volume you lost during that time.

 

[robert roman]

Depending on jurisdiction, state vs county road, most states are practicing better methods for resurfacing projects.

This means they will phase the project to limit adverse impacts on surrounding development.

In my market, this consists of grinding down but not removing the asphalt or concrete base, installing temporary median and road signs to identify business name as well as provide access point for ingress/egress during construction, usually limited to right turn into property.

You may also want to hire a sign waver during construction as well as special promotions to help offset construction hassels.

Try to make sure the agency is following standard practices such as watering to control construction dust.

 

[Waxman]

One idea is to gear your advertising efforts and specials towards the circumstances, as well as letting the customer know you are definitely OPEN.

 

[Waxman]

I have went thru this scenario four times. One took all summer and made business impossible. Lost water unexpectedly for up to 5 hrs. -- Street reconstructions are impossible, and now pay big specials to pay for the streets.
Every construction project had me hooked up on temporary lines, I have lost tons of business. The city made signs for me but customers were not that eager to go on a funny made road to wash their car. One time they put asphalt grindings in lawn to drive into wash from another direction as street was missing. I tried super low prices to attract customers--didn't help much.
I am usually quite positive about things but, only a few solutions One is do all the projects you always wanted to get done. Close for the summer, or drink copious amounts of alcohol to ease the pain.

Must've been especially tough for you, then, since I know for a fact you only drink the alcohol you find at the wash.

"Hey, where's the open bar at???"

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I would believe that if you have "Business Interruption" insurance you might be covered.

 

[audiosnow46]

I will be having the same issue coming up here in 6 months or so. The road in front of me will be single traffic for 8 months they predicted. And its going to be scary for me because i just purchased the car wash and am trying to reestablish the business and letting customers know that everything is now fixed and its not crap anymore. Then this happens im quite scared so hopefully a few of these things you have all suggested help me out.

 

[MudMoney]

My road was tore up for 16 months, while the state put in sewer,water and storm drains,businesses were told to expect up to 2 days with no access,after that only one access,guess who had no interruption in business? McDonalds! My wash borders them when it came time to put down new cement,thats right cement,no driving over for 3-5 days the contractor brought in small bridges for McDonalds to go over the fresh cement.The state paid for it all,us little guys got the shaft.The micky dees owner let my customers drive back and forth thru his property to my place, in return I would sweep his lot every day as a thank-you.I still lost 65% business,as the contractor had to keep the road watered down due to the dust and it was torn up for 2.5 miles thru town,who wants to leave awash with a clean car only to drive down a muddy road.I had made arrangements with my bank doing interest only payments during this time,great small town bank,lets see wells fargo do that!It would have been a great time to do improvements but with an uncertain cash flow best to hold on to as much as possible.It was a trying time to say the least and the highway looks great now

 

[Greg Pack]

Currently going through the process with local government. Apparently State Law does not allow a property owner to be compensated for loss of business during road construction. I really need the income to cash flow at home, so I'm a bit worried.