Businesses on South Upper Street will get some mild relief from construction woes Wednesday when the Lexington Parking Authority installs a temporary loading zone and metered spaces in the right lane of the 100 block, adjacent to the CentrePointe project.
The former metered parking spaces along the CentrePointe side of the road were removed in December 2013 to make way for construction barriers in the wake of CentrePointe’s excavation. After more than a year without street parking, the business owners approached the Parking Authority for help, said Gary Means, executive director of the Lexington and Fayette County Parking Authority.
Moving the CentrePointe barriers back was not an option, Means said. The city’s traffic engineers reviewed the traffic numbers on the one-way block, however, in light of the additional closure of the 100 block of North Upper Street for Lexington’s 21c Hotel. They determined that an additional lane closure on South Upper would be feasible.
“It happened surprisingly quickly,” Liza Hendley Betz, owner of Failte Irish Import Shop, said of the parking change. Since construction on the 21c Hotel began, motorists have only been able to reach the store by turning left from Main Street. Drivers on the block could hardly pause to consider her shop, she said.
“It’s been really, really hard,” she said. “I really think this will get us through the year.”