Construction on the roundabout at the top of Commercial Avenue is off to a fast start, and drivers are dealing with the detours pretty well, public works officials say.

But businesses near the roundabout say their flow of customers has been cut off, and detours are draining dollars that drive-by traffic used to provide.

Business at Bob’s Chowder just north of the roundabout has been cut in half, said owner Robert Atterberry.

At The Store, south of the intersection and far away from rerouted traffic, things have been so tough owner Frank Michaud has had to cut employee hours and is working to not lay anyone off.

Signs along the detour list the businesses in the construction area operating, but the road closures are still keeping customers away.

“I’m just hoping it will get over fast,” Atterberry said.

People entering town used to drive past Bob’s Chowder at 34th Street and Commercial Avenue, right where the main road is blocked off now, Atterberry said. Now they come in on R Avenue, and once drivers get rerouted back onto Commercial at 32nd Street, they’re past Bob’s.

The business is only a month old and whether it succeeds through the construction remains to be seen, Atterberry said. He is trying to be proactive, putting up banners and additional signage, which isn’t cheap, he said.

Atterberry said he questions why the work could not have been done in October or even February.

“Obviously it would have been better a different time of year,” Atterberry said.

There were some big reasons for doing the project this July, starting with the weather, said Public Works Director Fred Buckenmeyer.

“If we didn’t do it before the Anacortes Arts Festival, we really had to wait until after Oyster Run,” Buckenmeyer said.

That would pushed the project into the winter construction season, with possible weather-related costs inflating the price.

The city also wanted to take advantage of the current bidding climate. Project bids have been coming in as much as 50 percent lower than last year’s prices, Buckenmeyer said. With stimulus projects coming down the line, those prices could easily go up again as contractors get busier.

A $500,000 grant from the State Transportation Improvement Board, paying for about half the project, was another factor. Waiting until fall or even later to start work could have put those funds at risk.

If were to lose those grant funds we wouldn’t have the project,” Buckenmeyer said.

The project’s schedule was set a year ago. Since then several state agencies, including the Washington State Department of Transportation, have helped expedite the permitting process to get the project done.

“If it were delayed, I don’t know how to put it into words, but it just wouldn’t be right,” Buckenmeyer said.

To speed up the construction timeline, the city included a monetary incentive clause in the the contract with SRV Construction. For each day less than the 30 days the intersection is expected to be closed, SRV will receive $2,500, Buckenmeyer said.

“He has everything in his interest to open it faster,” he said.

Buckenmeyer said the project is going far better than expected in regards to the schedule and calls from residents.

“Complaints are almost nonexistent,” Buckenmeyer said. “There are a few, but not as many as we expected.”

Since the project began, the city has done a half dozen revisions to the detour. The south-bound left hand turn lane at Commercial Avenue and 32nd Street had been confusing people and was eliminated. Four-way stop signs were added to the 32nd Street and M Avenue intersection because traffic was backing up in the area.