As most folks know, road work can be a pain. And the 19th Road work might just take the cake. If you thought your commute to work was bad, try driving through it. Well, imagine working through it.
“Even this morning when I came to work, I couldn't get in. I had to weave between the cones to get through,” Danell Elswick said as she showed me the struggles of getting to work every morning due to the 19th construction.
WATCH: From Appointments to Access: Local Businesses Face Challenges with 19th Road Work
You’ve probably seen the building on the corner of 19th and College Street—a local business called Excel.
“We’re a physical therapy office, one of the biggest here in Bozeman. (We) Love serving our community,” says Danell.
Danell, who has worked with Excel for nine years, says serving the community has been harder since the south 19th construction started last Monday.
She has seen people not show up on time and more.
“Multiple people have missed appointments because of this.”
"People have missed appointments either from getting stuck in 19th traffic or because Excel’s parking lot has been blocked by cones," Danell added. "
I even had a hard time getting to Excel for my interview with Danell. What she says they’ve resorted to doing is:
“Essentially, we’re trying to direct them and flag them in like we are getting the planes into the bays here,” shares Danell. “It’s a gamut of emotions, feeling just like the city didn't do a good job at all of notifying not only the citizens who live in the area, but businesses.”
Danell isn't the only one experiencing this frustration.
“It’s been a bit of a problem for us because it’s put us behind,” says Ethan Ellis, owner of Alpine Dental.
Alpine Dental has been located off 19th and Lincoln Street since the 90s. He tells me this construction has caused so much frustration that it has led him to reach out to the city.
“It’s been frustrating for us because we got no heads up. There was no note to us as business owners, no flyers sent out to us saying, ‘Hey, 19th is going to be worked on. There’s going to be limited access to turn on or off 19th,’” says Ethan.
I was curious about how the city went about notifying businesses of this construction. Nick Ross, Bozeman’s director of transportation and engineering, tells me, “The city went through a wide array of media methods, including both our Bozeman streets report and through the city commission.”
They also worked with KBZK and other news stations to get the word out and provided project updates on the city website. I mentioned to Ross how both Danell and Ethan were feeling as businesses located on 19th Street.
“We certainly sympathize with businesses who feel the project has been moving at a pace that hasn't kept them up to speed,” began Ross. “Unfortunately, with an operation like paving, it’s very hard to plan out exact times and locations in advance.”
This is in contrast to larger road work projects, which are easier to schedule and plan for. But Ross has good news! Paving of south 19th is ahead of schedule and, if the weather cooperates, should be completed by the end of the week.
What does this news mean for Ethan?
“It’ll be nice to get everything back to normal—not having to try to reach out to patients on a hasty schedule and trying to get them here. So yeah, I’m looking forward to it,” says Ethan.
