By GABRIELLA LEE
Further delays pushing the overall completion date of the Ithaca Commons redesign project to next spring are negatively affecting local businesses, according to business owners who voiced concerns to the Common Council Wednesday.
The project, which began in the spring of 2013, was officially scheduled for completion on July 31 of this year but was subsequently delayed until November. Further complications, however, have pushed the completion date on all sections of the Commons besides the surfaces on Bank Alley and the 200 block of the Commons until next spring.
According to Gary Ferguson, executive director of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, there are two major causes of the delay.
“One was that the laying of the utilities really got complicated, particularly the ones that were outside of the control of project and those were the ones — pretty much the gas and electric — that were controlled by NYSEG,” Ferguson said.
The second cause of delays, Ferguson said, “was the [crash at Simeon’s] that happened over the summer, which certainly added some problems to the project.”
As a result of the delays and ongoing construction, Ferguson said that “the message was communicated last week [at the Common Council meeting] that a number of businesses have been adversely affected.”
The completion date of the Ithaca Commons redesign project has been delayed again, with the 100 block of W. State St. not scheduled for completion until the spring. Alejandro Hernandez / Sun Staff Photographer