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CLINTON TOWNSHIP — A large road project has one local business stuck in the middle.
Clippers Family Hair Care, located at the corner of Hayes and Utica roads in Clinton Township, sits right at the base of one Macomb County’s major north-south roads and just shy of Metropolitan Parkway. But an ongoing set of projects has blocked off access from both Hayes Road and Metro Parkway, forcing potential customers to approach from the Sterling Heights side of Utica Road.
“I only have one way to get in, and one way to get out is eastbound Utica Road, and the way they have it set up is very difficult for people to realize I’m open and I’m here,” said Dianna Jajjo, owner of Clippers Family Hair Care. “My business has decreased 65% in the last two months since they’ve started work here.”
Work in the area began in July. The Hayes Road bridge over the Clinton River and the Utica Road bridge over the Red Run were closed down for bridge rehabilitation work. With the bridges closed, Utica Road, from the intersection with Hayes to the intersection with Metro Parkway, has also been shut down for a road rehabilitation project. All three simultaneous projects are expected to be completed in December.
“There’s a lot of factors that we take into consideration with our projects based on funding, permitting, geographical location … We have a concerted effort to think about these projects as far as how we construct them and what we maintain for traffic and what we close,” said Bryan Santo, director of the Macomb County Department of Roads. “We thought it was in the best interest of the motoring public and the residents in the area to get this project done quicker by doing the closure than extending the time over two construction seasons and being in that area longer with more of a disruption.”
Doing all three of the projects at once was done to save time along with money. Santo says “hundreds of thousands of dollars” of savings with the $4.5 million project will come from doing it all this year rather than spreading it over multiple years.
Santo says the roads department notified residents and businesses about the work ahead of the project, though Jajjo says she was not made aware of it until it had already started.
“They initially gave me no information and no notice,” Jajjo said. “I actually had to call the road department myself like six days prior to the construction because I saw signs going up. I called them to see what was going on … That same day that I called, I had somebody come down from the department of roads. They gave me a paper that I later found out I should have gotten months ago along with other residents and businesses around the area.”
County road department notifications say, “Access to all businesses and properties will be maintained throughout the duration of the project,” though Jajjo argues that access to the salon has not been made easy. Along with construction equipment and barriers that prove imposing to navigate, Jajjo says construction workers have been redirecting traffic trying to approach the salon.
“Customers were calling me constantly in the first three, four weeks saying, ‘Where are you? I can’t get to you. Are you open?’
“My major issue right now is that contractors that are out here working are telling people from the entrance they’ve provided that the road is closed and waving them away, not knowing whether they’re coming to my shop or trying to get through the construction site,” Jajjo added.
While Jajjo understands the importance of the construction, she cannot help but worry if the salon will be able to survive the lack of traffic through the completion of the project.
“I know it’s got to get done, I know it will be nice once it is done, but in the meantime it’s my livelihood,” Jajjo said. “It’s frustrating and I just want to put it out there that I’m here and ready to work.”
