Businesses on Pittsburgh's Walnut Street upset with timing of Duquesne Light work
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Small businesses in a popular shopping district are frustrated with Duquesne Light. The electric company started a new project that is taking up precious parking spaces.
For small businesses, December can be a make-or-break time for them. After seeing orange "no parking" cones, they weren't happy. Walnut Street is the commercial district for the Shadyside neighborhood and is normally lined up with cars and shoppers, especially during this time of year.
"Really troubling and unfortunate that they've chosen to do all of this now," said Luke Weber with Amazing Books and Records.
On Tuesday, Duquesne Light trucks lined one side of the road and the message on the cones said no parking until Dec. 30. In a statement, however, Duquesne Light said they're expected to finish their work by Wednesday.
The work is on the block between Copeland Street and Bellefonte Street. Shop owners said they started earlier this week. Crews could be seen working on some of the power lines Tuesday. There were some power outages for nearby businesses.
"It's just like one total mess, I guess. I mean, I really don't know," said Lou Wickstrom, the owner of Lucid Juice.
Duquesne Light said it was performing scheduled work ahead of construction planned at a local business.
Several small businesses are frustrated that this work had to be done right now. There is already construction blocking parts of the sidewalk, and with this work, they fear other shoppers may be deterred from stopping by.
"It's just ease of access. People are just going to drive through, not stop, or park further away. Maybe they don't walk through past here," Wickstrom said.
The frustrations also carry over to being figuratively left in the dark. While they did get some messages about work happening, they don't know quite what Duquesne Light is doing outside their doors.
"This is like a really big month for us," Weber said inside the Walnut Street business.
While they know it may very well be necessary work, they want to know why it couldn't wait until after the holidays.
"If you started this on January 1st as opposed to December 1st, I think people around here would have a lot less of a problem with it," Weber said.