Completion of Berkley Parking Lot Project Delayed

The bad news: The parking lot improvement project behind the strip of businesses along 12 Mile Road between Robina and Griffith is unlikely to be completed before the Berkley CruiseFest on Friday. The good news: The city expects the lot will be open during the event.

Work on the project was held up by hot, rainy weather and complications securing easements, as well as parts delays, City Manager Jane Bais-DiSessa said, adding that she understands the frustration of nearby business owners.

The Downtown Development Authority project will add a half dozen parking spaces, improve pedestrian walkways, consolidate trash Dumpsters and add bike racks.

Bais-DiSessa said she expects 95 percent of the work will be completed by Friday, allowing the lot to open for parking during the Berkley CruiseFest, but landscaping and other finishing touches may not be done by then.

The lot, which has been closed during construction this summer, serves the employees and customers of , , , , , , and .

"Daily, our customers ask us when it's going to be done," City Style owner Carrie Vestrand said.

"Weeks have gone by with no one working on it until the last three or four days," after Bais-DiSessa visited the businesses to provide an update on the project and took their concerns to the contractor, Vestrand said Friday. "When weeks go by and nobody's working on it, that increases our frustration."

will receive an estimated $464,484.03 for the work from the DDA and the city's tax increment financing fund; none will come from the general fund.

The DDA did not return a call requesting comment for this story.

Koala-T had planned to have the construction completed by early August. But extreme heat and torrential rains prevented the contractor from pouring the concrete, Bais-DiSessa said.

In addition, the city had to secure easements for the work and make some adjustments to the plan to do so, which held up the project, she said. Koala-T also had to wait for electrical lighting components to be delivered, Bais-DiSessa said.

The delays pushed the work back, causing the job to overlap with other Koala-T projects, she said.

"They, too, were expecting to be done by now," Bais-DiSessa said Friday. "I think everything is on board now."

Vestrand said her concern about the delay extends beyond its impact on her own business to what kind of impression visitors will get of Berkley during CruiseFest.

"It's always an awesome event, and the city never gets that kind of exposure except during and CruiseFest," she said. "So our hope is that it will be open and won't be an eyesore. The last thing you want is for people to come from out of town and say, 'There was nowhere to park.' "