Two-year College Mall Road construction completed

Construction on College Mall Road officially ended yesterday. \nDuring the ribbon-cutting ceremony, one passerby shouted a question many Bloomington residents have had.\n"Why did this project take so long?" \nThe road has been under construction since June 2001.\nThe completion of the project opens up four lanes of traffic, instead of the previous two. The construction, which had an estimated budget of $6.5 million, was part of Bloomington's Transportation 2000.\nBloomington mayor John Fernandez said the project completion is long overdue. \n"It is a really important long term investment," Fernandez said. "This will not just benefit the east side of Bloomington but the community as a whole."\nFernandez said that although the project took longer than expected, it came in three quarters of a million dollars under budget. \nScott Sieboldt from Weddle Brothers Construction, the company that worked on the project, said the new road is a great product of the project. \n"It was a little longer time-wise than what people wanted," Sieboldt said. "But the city got it right and made the changes when they needed to."\nVickie Temple, owner of Bloomington Hardware, said now that the construction is finished the store will have more returning customers and it will be easier for customers to get to and from the store. \nThough store owners in the College Mall Road area have said business has slowed because of the construction, Fernandez said it was never that bad.\n"I think that it was understood going into this project that the benefits will outweigh the costs. It was never that bad and we do appreciate people's patience," he said. \nSieboldt said Fernandez and city officials paid attention to Bloomington residents' and businesses' concerns during the construction. \n"This is one of the reasons that it took a little bit longer because we tried to keep the disruption down as much as possible," Sieboldt said. \nOverall disruption might have been minimal, but Temple said the construction was not beneficial to her business.\n"Our economy has not been doing well and did it help that the construction was here as well? No," she said.\nWhen questioned about the length of the project and whether it would be a blemish on his administration Fernandez answered candidly.\n"Hell no," he said. "This is one of those achievements that the people who have been a part of this administration will be very proud of." \n-- Contact staff writer Mike Malik at mjmalik@indiana.edu.