At $49 million, the 800 North reconstruction project in Orem may be costing taxpayers a pretty penny, but some area merchants say the project's traffic interruptions may come close to putting them out of business.

Began in the summer of 2006, the major Utah Department of Transportation project will expand the congested regional thoroughfare from two to three lanes of traffic in each direction. The project is expected to be competed in fall 2008.

Though UDOT and project contractors have attempted to minimize traffic delays during construction, motorists' access to and from the freeway and to State Street at times has been problematic, at best.

Temporary closures and lane restrictions have left travelers seeing red brake lights instead of red tag sales.

On Thursday, Park's Sportsman owner Randy Park invited business owners, UDOT representatives, and project general contractors to discuss merchants' concerns that traffic woes related to the road reconstruction are keeping shoppers away.

Park said business owners have been dealt a double whammy after first coping with State Street construction and now enduring a long 800 North project. Merchants say they have been further thwarted by electronic marquee signs instructing motorists to use detour routes.

"We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get a pattern where people [come here to shop] and we tell them to go somewhere else," he said. "We create a buying pattern and we just don't get them back" when customers change their pattern.

Park said revenues this year at his outdoor clothing and equipment store are down 20 to 30 percent, and he has also been hit with major increases for his employee medical plans.

"I can't tell you how many loyal customers have said 'Randy, there's no way in heck we're coming down here,' " he said.

Though they are not directly on 800 North, Park and other businesses, including John Chatterton, manager of Electrical Wholesale Supply, have said the traffic interruptions are enough that customers from around the valley are avoiding their State Street businesses and shopping elsewhere. Some clients have told Chatterton it takes 45 minutes to get off the freeway, purchase a $10 part, and get back to Interstate 15.

"The project has made our business hard to get into, as well as decreased our overall sales and profit," Chatterton said in a letter to UDOT and project contractors.

UDOT representatives and project contractors responded that unfortunately the massive reconstruction project was bid out before these concerns were expressed.

Because of the complex logistics involved in balancing road reconstruction work with utility companies' installation of gas lines, water conduits, and municipal water and sewer pipes, roads and intersections periodically have had to be torn up and repaved at various stages, they said.

Stages of the project also have had to work around weather conditions and irrigation canal flow seasons.

Phil Huff, UDOT's project coordinator 800 North, said though the work is currently on schedule, utilities installation has caused unforeseen delays and put the pressure on project general contractor Condie Construction.

"We haven't given [Condie] any more time," Huff said. "It's just put him in a hole to start with ... [and] put him behind schedule.

Park and former Orem business owner and City Council candidate Brent Sumner, who helped arrange the meeting, asked if a combination of more funding and extended day or 24/7 work schedules might speed up the process.

Huff and others said with only a two week paving window left this fall, more money, if it can even be acquired, might only have an impact in the spring.

"That's something that would have to be negotiated with Condie's work crews and schedules ... ," Huff said. "There's lot of work going on in this state."

The question of if major adjustments to the project can be made to assist businesses owners remains to be answered. But Huff said UDOT representatives and contractors met after Thursday's meeting and did agree to some concessions. They agreed to make signal light and electronic marquee changes, and work with Condie officials when the contractor starts work on State Street "to get his schedules moved up."

In the coming weeks, contractors will be finishing pavement operations on the north side of 800 North prior to moving traffic over to that side. Work will then commence on the south side of 800 North, turning out pavement and installing sewer and water for Orem city.

Project updates and background can be found online at www.udot.utah.gov/orem800north.