Businesses on Jacklin Road have noticed a decrease in customers due to the construction on Jacklin Road between Jenkins Avenue and Division Avenue.
Golden Lion, General Salvage and Memories Antiques at the Trading Post have all been long-standing businesses on that street and business has been slower since construction started in February.
Kristina Ellard, General Salvage sales and media manager, said they have had a lot of customers confused by the detour signs. Ellard gets calls during business hours from people that aren’t from the West Shore that tried to take the detours and have had to pull over and call the store to get help with directions. “I have to explain almost every day how this works,” she said. “At least 50 per cent [of people] don’t want to drive back around and figure it out, they just get discouraged and they don’t come.”
Many customers used to drive by and pop into General Salvage but that hasn’t happened in the last four months, Ellard said, adding foot traffic isn’t anywhere near what it was because people don’t walk through the construction zone. General Salvage sells to the movie industry, but Ellard said they really miss the drive by clientele.
RELATED: Portion of Jacklin Road to close in Langford starting Feb. 13
Even when the flaggers are directing traffic, she said drivers that are more timid may not know they can access Jacklin from Division Avenue and put their signal on to venture in, because they are following the direction of the detour sign. The detour sign is situated in the middle of the Road at Jacklin at Division, and the arrow points towards Division Avenue.
Brenda Xiao, co-owner of the Golden Lion Restaurant, said they have had customers call and ask them if the restaurant is closed.
Xiao thinks because it’s inconvenient to access their restaurant, people are eating elsewhere.
She said winter is their busiest time of year, but their dine-in and delivery sales are down compared to this time last year.
“Dine-in is less a lot,” she said. On a Thursday evening when the restaurant opened at 4:30 p.m. it was still empty at 5:30 p.m.
Fred Gallichen, owner at Memories Antiques at the Trading Post, said business is slower but he thinks about the long-term advantages of the new construction across the street.
He said with the new development, there’s the potential of increased walk-in traffic and the interlocking pavers will add to the ambiance of the area.
“I believed in this property when I came here in 2005, the space that we have, the opportunities that we had,” Gallichen said.
“I try to be positive, the dust and the noise, the rolling trucks, the windows just shake like an earthquake…[but] it’s just part of it.”
Gallichen said they also sell to the movie industry, which helps, and Memories own the property their business sits on, relieving them of the stress of paying rent, but the decrease in sales is still noticeable.
He said the construction crews work with them, spraying the dirt on that side of the road with water, to try to keep the dust at a minimum when they expressed their concerns to the contractor.
Michelle Mahovlich, director of engineering for the City of Langford, said Jacklin Road is scheduled to reopen around mid-July.
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