Merchants criticize construction

Public works crews are racing to finish a construction project near the Balboa Fun Zone before the peninsula’s Fourth of July celebration and Newport Beach Centennial festivities.

Area merchants said they were happy to see the work being completed although the timing isn’t exactly ideal.

“I would say its pretty hard for everybody, but they seem to be doing it fairly fast,” said Bobbie Mifflin, who sells saltwater taffy on the peninsula.

Construction crews are tearing up city streets and sidewalks in an effort to improve drainage near the Fun Zone and to boost the appearance of several public areas. The recent efforts are the third and final phase of a project that originally began in 2002 to enhance the area.

Mifflin said the first phase of improvements was worse for her business because access to her small taffy shop was severely limited. She added that it was already increasingly difficult to draw visitors to the Fun Zone as modern Orange County tourist attractions like the Irvine Spectrum and Disneyland continue to grow and compete for visitors. Many locals were skipping trips to the peninsula because of tight parking, and she said the construction only makes things more difficult.

“I think the timing couldn’t have been any worse,” said Andrew Costa, owner of Gina’s Pizza, which recently yanked its franchisee license from the Balboa Fun Zone location after years of lagging sales. “This is supposed to be our peak season and the construction is creating a lot of dust and headache for people doing business in the area.”

Project manager Emmet Berkery said the construction was originally intended to begin earlier in the year, but delays from a pump installation project by the Orange County Sanitation District had pushed the public works effort back. He said the city couldn’t start the project any later because a federal grant secured to pay for the improvements was scheduled to expire before summer and would be lost if not soon used.

“We already got one extension on that, but we don’t think we could have gotten another,” Berkery said.

The project covers Balboa Boulevard and Edgewater Avenue, between Main and Palm streets. Berkery said contractor L.H. Engineering of Anaheim is working hard to finish the most disruptive parts of the $1.4-million project ? sidewalk replacement and street repaving ? before Memorial Day but was running into the typical difficulties associated with street-improvement efforts.

“Public works is not pretty,” Berkery said. “It’s messy, it’s loud, it’s disruptive and it’s noisy. It’s not origami.”dpt.15-funzone-1-kt-CPhotoInfoIP1QUVVI20060515iza6udncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)People walk past construction at the Balboa Fun Zone on Sunday. dpt.15-funzone-2-kt-CPhotoInfoIP1QUVVK20060515iza71tncKENT TREPTOW / DAILY PILOT(LA)A man walks through an area under construction at the Balboa Fun Zone on Sunday. Some shop owners worry that the construction is affecting business as the tourist season nears.