West Johnson Street businesses, suffering from the road construction, say they are anxious for the street to open in October to allow business to return to normal levels.

Nitty Gritty owner Marsh Shapiro said the restaurant has hosted as few as 30 birthdays a day, compared to an average of 50 to 60 when the road was open.

He said the decrease is attributed to customers who drive in from greater Madison and other nearby communities and does not reflect a loss of student business.

“It has a tremendous effect on the business community when 30,000 to 40,000 cars are not driving down the street,” Shapiro said.

The Nitty Gritty, located on the corner of West Johnson Street and Frances Street, has had a sign posted on West Dayton Street for the past month and a half saying the restaurant is still open.

“We still get a number of calls from people asking, ‘Are you open?'” he added.

Shapiro said the section of West Johnson Street where the Nitty Gritty is located was torn up the third week of June, and Sept. 2 was the first day he has seen workers fixing the road.

Project engineer for the city of Madison Bryan Manning said West Johnson Street should be open to traffic between mid- and late October.

He said West Johnson Street construction might meet the Oct. 17 deadline but is more likely to finish a week late.

The deadline for sidewalk completion is Nov. 15, Manning said.

Parisi Construction, the company working on West Johnson Street, could pay $1200 to $1300 in late fees for every day the company fails to meet the deadline, Manning said.

The $4.5 million project will completely revamp the street, including the sanitary sewers and water-main system.

Manning said workers installed a new water main at the intersection of West Johnson Street and State Street, and water pipes were damaged during the construction, causing water to be shut off several times on blocks of West Johnson Street and State Street.

Le Chardonnay, a Tunisian restaurant, opened last May and owner Sami Fgaier said after initial success, business has declined 40 percent since the road was closed in June.

Fgaier said the restaurant had its water shut off several times this summer and was closed for lunch for the last month and a half until Sept. 2 due to lack of business.

He said the sidewalk was taken out two weeks ago and still has not been replaced.

“There is a mess in front of us,” Fgaier said.

Tom Marks, assistant manager at Howard Johnson hotel, called the construction a “complete disaster” for the area but said customers have understood the hotel’s situation.

“The biggest problem is getting people here; it’s hard to notify them how to get here and some have come in upset,” Marks said.

Shapiro said customers may be discouraged from coming downtown because of numerous city and newspaper reports throughout the summer saying not to drive downtown unless absolutely necessary.

He also said he is worried the construction will extend beyond the football season and into the Kohl Center’s season, a time usually busy for the restaurant.

The pre- and post-game traffic during football season may also cause people to rush to leave the downtown area when normally they would want to stay downtown, Shapiro said.

A number of customers have complained to Shapiro, asking why more progress has not been made on the street.

Shapiro said he agrees that the city could have had more workers for the 1.2 mile stretch of West Johnson Street, worked at night or tried to waive the city ordinance that says workers cannot start before 7 a.m.