Construction project to impact NoDa drivers, businesses for months

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Construction on a storm drainage improvement project is set to begin Tuesday in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood.

It’s a project that will affect drivers and businesses for months.

The work will take place along North Davidson Street, between 27th and 28th streets.

By early Tuesday morning, crews had already started blocking off roads before the construction, which will happen in stages, begins.

This week there will be just one lane of traffic followed by two months of full road closures. The project could extend beyond that.

Crews will be replacing storm drainage pipes along North Davidson Street and 27th Street after they were determined to be in very poor condition.

Once the pipes are replaced, they will help reduce street flooding and improve aging storm drainage infrastructure in this area.

There are plenty of businesses in the busy NoDa area. Some owners said they were given short notice about the construction. A few even claimed they weren’t even notified at all.

They say the biggest impact of this project is access and how that could lead to a decline financially.

“It will impact our business in many ways, the No. 1 thing being access,” Jason Alexander, with Free Range Brewing, said. “All the way from receiving raw materials will be challenging but the most important thing is it will be harder for customers to find us.”

“I have no idea how that is even going to work. I mean they have to have some type of route for them to go around. How is that going to work? How? Nothing has been told to us,” Kim Lovingood-Owens, co-owner of NoDa Bark and Board, said.

Business owners said they are depending on the loyalty of their customers as the construction work proceeds.

An alternate route for those heading inbound into the city will be to turn onto East 28th Street and take it to Yadkin Avenue and East 26th Street before getting back into North Davidson Street.

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