SALEM — On an average day, Dave Brennan is behind the cash register at Cosgrove's Liquors, the business he owns on Bridge Street.
But yesterday, Brennan was standing in the parking lot in front of the store watching a construction crew regrade the busy street.
When a reporter approached and asked, "How's business?" Brennan smiled and replied, "It's kind of quiet today."
Quiet seemed to be an understatement — there were no customers parked in the lot.
It has been quiet all week as construction crews have been digging up the road bed, laying new gravel and beginning the repaving of Route 1A all the way from Veterans Memorial Bridge to the edge of downtown. It has reduced traffic to one lane and created temporary backups.
At times, the construction work has blocked the entrances to several of the businesses that line the street, causing headaches for some.
"It's killing us," said Ray Parga, who rents repair space at a used auto dealer. "Customers want to come in, but they can't. Where the hell are they going to park?"
Parga said the state could have done a better job coordinating the work so that businesses wouldn't have been so severely affected.
Other business owners were more philosophical. Some saw this as one more bump in the road.
Bridge Street, after all, has survived the advent of the bypass road, which took traffic and potential customers away, and has lived through months of almost-constant road construction in preparation for repaving, which began this week.
"They're moving right along," John Spinale of Spinale Automotive said. "They're doing the best they can. ... What can I do? They have to do it."
The repaving, a major phase of Bridge Street reconstruction, is expected to take several weeks as a state contractor does 300-foot segments, a week at a time.
The state has undertaken the project at the city's request. When work is done, this section of Bridge Street will totally be rebuilt, with a new road surface and sidewalks.
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