Is Lubbock Construction Impacting Local Businesses?

Lubbock is constantly expanding with new businesses and neighborhoods, as well as updating older parts of town to make them feel new again. While this is great, it also means there is constantly some form of construction happening around town.  

New construction usually isn’t a problem, because it is usually out of the way of busy areas and happens relatively quickly. The real problem lies within the construction that takes place in well-established, high traffic areas.  

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It always seems to happen at the worst times, in the worst places. Like starting construction on 19th St right before Texas Tech classes started back up or messing with thousands of people’s daily commute with construction on the Loop 289. These are the types of construction that gets everyone worked up. 

While I can handle having my commute slightly changed if it means having better roads to drive on, I can’t stand it when Lubbock construction interferes with local businesses.  

We saw it a while back when construction on 82nd street was blocking access to the parking lots of a few Lubbock businesses, drastically reducing their business for the duration of construction. Now, I’ve noticed a very similar thing happening on Ave Q between the Marsha Sharp and 19th St. 

This construction is happening for a good reason, to improve mobility and safety in that part of town. They are accomplishing this by redoing parts of the road, the sidewalk, and ADA ramps. You can read more about the plan here. 

While this is great, the construction has been blocking several businesses on Ave Q for weeks now. Places like Flippers Tavern, Inkflunce Tattoo, and Edoc Ink, have had the street parking in front of their businesses blocked off, and the sidewalk is also unusable in some areas. Parking is already slim in that part of town, and forcing people to park far away while also not having usable sidewalks is a bit of a problem.  

I just hope that the construction wraps up as quick as possible and we don’t run into a similar situation as the 82nd St problem.