Not sure how often a business’ access is completely cut off. A recent sewer project down a commercial street keep at least one lane of traffic open for access to each business, both sides. It was screw-ball enough for me to park a couple blocks away and walk. Around here, a business owner will first learn of a project like this when the bond measure shows up on his ballot, so if he pays attention and sees that it passes, he’ll have several years fore-warning.
… and if the old sewer failed, I sure as hell wouldn’t be doing business there any longer.
I think we paid out on one where construction on the ramps to the highway meant that customers would have to go to the next exit and then come back a quarter of a mile on the frontage road to get in. Yes, there was still access. Employees could get in just fine. On the other hand, you could also buy a hot dog at the next exit without backtracking, so it was a reasonable argument that they were losing business. And that people would get used to going somewhere else.
On another project, we didn’t pay out because the access hadn’t changed, they just claimed that people would avoid an exit with construction. They dramatically painted GOING OUT OF BUSINESS SALE, over all their windows. It must have worked. Construction stopped in 2007 and those signs are still up.
It’s not my section, but I know that my agency can indeed be held liable for loss of business due to road construction. There was a big rehab project through town a few years ago. Agreements were negotiated with each business that lost road access during construction to compensate for lost revenue. I know one that still wasn’t happy and threatened legal action for additional money, but I don’t know how that turned out.
If there are going to be big impacts to businesses in the project limits we’ll hold public meetings to introduce people to the project. That way we’re in a better position to know what objections the public may have to the proposal and adjust the design or construction staging.