Roadwork shuts down part of 13th Street for rest of the year

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – Road closures and construction seem to be picking up across the area, impacting everything from the interstates to your neighborhood.

The next phase of the downtown revitalization project shuts down 13th Street between Telfair and Walker Street. It is located right next to Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School and Scared Heart.

The shutdown looks to close down this stretch for the rest of the year as they work to repair the canal bridge.

It looks to impact drivers and businesses in the area.

Vino Caffeen’o is one of those businesses already seeing a hit.

“We have seen a slight drop off in customer presence,” said owner Ronnie Tidwell.

He says their biggest joy is serving their regulars, now they have to find alternate routes. Even Tidwell has to maneuver his way through the new closure.

“I’m a nurse at the VA,” he said. “I saw construction developing over there, I’ve had to reroute my own personal route to work and so it has affected our thinking about where we need to be every day.”

The detour takes you through 12th Street.

The construction also blocks off an exit point for Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School.

It loses coffee sales for Vino Caffeen’o.

“The morning traffic of moms dropping their kids off we were missing some of that,” said Tidwell. “With this part of 12th Street only being a one-way street, we’re a little bit hampered anyway. Now we’re losing that other part of 12th Street. And so we’re kind of concerned about the drop off on that.”

The business might be a food truck design, but they’re stuck to one main location in Georgia as it’s their legal business address in Georgia.

“It would take a lot for us to build another base elsewhere. And so we’re gonna try to do the best we can,” he said.

Tidwell and his business will have to deal with this shutdown at least until the end of the year. This is just one of the many projects the city is working on as a part of its downtown revitalization project.

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