LITTLE ROCK — Lucy Hammett spent $140,000 transforming a condemned car wash into a 5,000-square-foot carpet business.
So Hammett, who since 2006 has operated Abbey Carpet and Floor at Cantrell Road and Kentucky Avenue, is more than a little concerned about plans to widen Cantrell in the area so a center turn-lane can be added.
For one thing, there is already little space for the narrow parking lot between her business and the busy roadway. But more pressing, she says, is preliminary word from the Arkansas Department of Highway and Transportation that the work could cut off her entry and exit on Kentucky Avenue.
That's how most customers access the store and losing that would quickly translate into lost business, Hammett said.
"If they do that, then they have really harmed my business," she said. "It makes a difference. It makes a really big difference."
Hammett isn't alone in her concerns. Businesses, as well as some residents in the largely commercial area, are awaiting word from the highway department about how exactly the construction will proceed, whose land will be encroached upon and which structures are in the way.
Locals offered their opinions at a July meeting, and engineers have taken the various perspectives under consideration while they design a detailed plan for adding the fifth lane between Mississippi Avenue and Perryville Road.
Glenn Bolick, a spokesman for the Highway Department, said the $8 million to $10 million project is necessary because of a high rate of accidents, particularly rear-end ones, on a road that sees 32,000 vehicles a day. In addition to adding the turn lane, crews will shift Perryville Road so it intersects Cantrell at a safer, more perpendicular angle.
Engineers will try to accommodate the residents and businesses in the area, Bolick said, but conflicts are unavoidable in some places. Structures and small parking lots closely hug the curb through parts of the roughly half-mile stretch of roadway and the land for the new lane has to come from somewhere.
"If you get out and walk from Mississippi down to Perryville Road, three fourths of it is retail right up on the street," said Bolick, who called the work "badly needed" given the safety concerns. "You obviously are going to impact the way people do business. But we don't want to put them out of business."
"There's some places where you can adjust - instead of going on this side of the road, maybe we can scoot over and get on that side. In some instances, it's just not possible to do."
It's a delicate engineering balance that Robert "Ro" Arrington, a manager at Terry's Finer Wines, will be following closely.
Arrington said he and the owners are concerned that the liquor store could be torn down as part of the work because it sits so close to Cantrell. A preliminary proposal from the highway department had the lane addition overtaking the front section of the store, a development that - if included in the final plans - would necessitate razing the business and moving it elsewhere.
"We like the location and we want to stay here," Arrington said on a recent afternoon, sitting behind the counter while a steady flow of cars drove by outside.
Several business owners in the area acknowledged worries about losing parking or store space, but didn't want to be interviewed because the plans are still fluid. At Kraftco Hardware across from the liquor store, the owner declined comment for this story, though employees said they were concerned the work might overtake at least some property from the longtime Cantrell Road staple.
Arrington said he has heard some residents in the area are preparing to file a lawsuit over the work.
The construction plans will approach finality later this year or early next year. Residents and business owners will be invited to a meeting where the design will be unveiled, Bolick said. A year-and-a-half construction schedule would begin in 2013, if the development proceeds on schedule.
Concerns about relocation aside, Arrington said he believes in the work: He thinks the roadway is unsafe for customers turning left into the business and turning left to leave it.
"As a longtime resident of this area, I see the need for Cantrell to be widened without question," he said. "As a business manager here, I have yet to see what they plan on doing for us regarding our relocation and just exactly what they want from our property."
At Damgoode Pies, which shares a parking lot with the liquor store, the work may force the business to move its large, streetside sign and to do away with some its front parking lot. Since the final dimensions aren't known, it's possible the roadway could encroach even closer toward the restaurant's front door.
"It's a real big concern for us," general manager Craig James said.
A more pressing worry is how the construction itself will affect business at the popular pizza spot. James said the work - which will stretch over at least two construction seasons - might block access or perhaps just dissuade people from stopping by because they don't want to deal with the inevitable congestion.
"I think it will kind of deter people away from this area," he said. "A lot of people are going to try to go around the traffic instead of go right through it. Right now, we're in a good spot where a lot of people see us every day."
Some people in the area question the need for the work.
Michael White, a physician who lives in a house on Cantrell near Perryville, said there is a traffic problem in the area, but he doesn't think an added lane will make a difference.
He said he has on numerous occasions heard a loud crash and ventured outside to find a wreck a short ways from his door. Speed and poor visibility are the problems, he said, not the lack of a turn lane.
"I would sacrifice a few feet of my yard if I felt like it could help, if I felt like it would cause Cantrell to be safer," he said. "But I don't think it will."
Hammett, whose carpet store has 420 feet of frontage on Cantrell, also has her doubts. Even with a dedicated left-hand turn lane, cars will have to "dart" across two lanes of traffic on a roadway where she said motorists routinely exceed the speed limit.
That's her concern about losing her Kentucky Avenue driveway. Traffic simply moves too fast on Cantrell and trying to turn in from it or out against it is too dangerous, turn lane or not, she said.
"I don't see that it really helps," she said. "(The problem) is more speed than anything."
Bolick disagrees. He said the work mirrors a project completed several years ago that added a center turn lane on Cantrell from Mississippi west toward Interstate 430.
He said that work gave left turning vehicles needed space to wait for opposing traffic to clear, spurring a "dramatic" reduction in rear-end crashes.
It is hoped the same results will extend eastward with the new lane.
"That's what this is for," Bolick said. "It's strictly, strictly based on safety. There's no other reason to do this other than safety."