The City of St. John’s held a debrief on Phase 2 of the Water Street Rehabilitation Project this afternoon. A number of concerns were raised around signage, parking and the impact the project had on businesses.

The city says many things went well with the project, like the communication around power and water outages, and traffic detours.

Some in attendance applauded the city on having a liaison on-hand at all times to help businesses deal with concerns.

Some of the challenges faced during the project. @VOCMNEWS #nltraffic pic.twitter.com/NERRi5F8rP

— Ben Murphy VOCM (@BenMurphyVOCM) July 29, 2019

However, it wasn’t all positive. Concerns were raised about construction workers, and that many of the available parking spaces were filled by someone working on the project—further limiting access to stores.

Another popular topic was signage. It was mentioned that the “I Love Downtown” campaign, encouraging people to continue shopping during construction, was only placed in the downtown—rather than attracting attention in other parts of the city.

The idea of mitigation efforts—like tax breaks—was also brought up. A number of consultation meetings will still take place before construction begins on Phase 3, come next April.