A REAL PAIN

Three major road projects in Hollywood all behind schedule

HOLLYWOOD – If you’ve been cursing the prolonged gridlock on three high-profile roads undergoing extreme makeovers, we have some bad news.

All three projects — State Road A1A, Hollywood Boulevard and State Road 7 — are running several months behind schedule.

Blame rainy days, holidays and contractors, Hollywood officials say.

“All of them are behind schedule,” Commissioner Peter Hernandez said of the three makeovers. “They’re all painful. It depends where you live where you feel it the most.”

The contractors answer to the state Department of Transportation and have sole discretion over where they send their work crews, Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy said.

“Cities are stuck between a rock and a hard place because we can’t deal directly with the contractor,” he said.

Hollywood commissioners recently blasted state officials for delays in the revamping of State Road A1A, State Road 7 and Hollywood Boulevard between City Hall and Dixie Highway. All three projects are estimated to last at least six months longer than originally planned.

After grilling state officials, commissioners discovered that the project deadlines do not take into ac- count holidays and rainy days when workers are not required to show up.

But sometimes construction crews are missing on sunny days too, Commissioner Caryl Shuham told state officials.

“It’s very frustrating when we drive A1A and Hollywood Boulevard and we see zero activity on a bright and sunny day,” she said. “We see it all the time.”

Barricades and bulldozers have lined Hollywood Boulevard and A1A for months on end, confounding drivers and shop owners forced to put up with the dust.

Some stores have gone out of business or have owners worried they too will have to close up shop.

“This has been devastating for the businesses along Hollywood Boulevard,” Commissioner Dick Blattner said. “One of the longest operating businesses is out of business. Other small businesses are out of business. More are going to go out of business.”

A1A is getting a $9.4 million makeover that was supposed to end this spring, but it’s six months behind schedule, Blattner said.

The State Road 7 upgrade represents two separate projects worth a total of $60 million. One is about eight months behind but will be complete at the end of the year, Blattner said.

And Hollywood Boulevard is getting a $7.6 million makeover. The

two-year project got underway in July 2017 and was supposed to end this summer, but has a new fall deadline.

When complete, Hollywood Boulevard will have new landscaping and lighting, 5-foot wide bike lanes with a buffer zone, parallel parking spaces and functional public art.

But shop owners say the construction has been a nightmare.

Victor Hijazi says his shop, the House of Teak, can’t survive another nine months of construction. So he’s moving in March.

“They’re now on my side of the street and they’ve blocked me completely,” he said. “They have all the machinery and bulldozers right in front of my shop. Tomorrow I’m putting up a sign saying I’m moving.”

Aspen Hair Salon, a staple on Hollywood Boulevard since 1980, has lost several loyal clients since construction began, said manager Debbie Green.

“At one point you couldn’t get to us,” she said. “You could walk here, but it was dangerous. I opened the front door one day and there was a five-foot drop because they were putting in the pipes. No one gave us any warning.”

Green was not happy to hear the project wouldn’t be done until fall.

“That’s just crazy,” she said. “The whole thing is disappointing. Times are bad, but the construction does not help.”

Hernandez told state officials he was worried the contractors wouldn’t stick to the deadlines even after they’re extended.

“You say [it will be done by] fall 2019,” he said. “If there’s a storm, that could change another six months. And our residents are the ones it hurts.”

The lack of activity makes resident Bob Glickman fume.

“They claim rain delays,” said Glickman, who runs a business downtown and lives in a condo at the beach. “It’s easy as pie for them to get extensions. How do you get a 300-day extension on the project? We haven’t had 300 days of bad weather.”

Things will get back to normal soon enough, the mayor says.

“On the bright side of things, when the dust settles, we’re going to have safer, more modern, better lit main arteries for the city,” Levy said. “It’s painful right now, but in the end we’ll have improvements that will last for decades.”

PHOTOS BY CARLINE JEAN/SOUTH FLORIDA SUN SENTINEL Drivers and shop owners have been dealing with construction woes along Hollywood Boulevard since July 2017. The expected completion date has been pushed from summer to at least the fall.

Pedestrians try to cross a busy A1A in Hollywood on Wednesday.