The monotonous drone of heavy machinery along Mandeville’s U.S. Highway 190 is striking a chord with local businesses and residents.

“We’re trying to make the road better to increase their business,” said Brendan Rush, public information officer with the Department of Transportation and Development.

But the locals are having a hard time seeing beyond the gargantuan heaps of earth and hundreds of cones lining the highway.

Businesses and commuters along U.S. Highway 190 in Mandeville can'€™t wait for the widening project to conclude. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

“My business has dropped 65 percent,” said Giovanni Vancheri, owner of Italian restaurant Gio’s Villa Vancheri. “There are two businesses down the road that had to close.”

Vancheri, like many other business owners along the busy corridor, blames the construction for their woes.

Rows of cones and road signs guiding motorists along the highway tend to snarl traffic to a halt at most hours of the day, especially during peak traveling periods. This heavy traffic deters drivers from visiting the area, often pressing them to take back roads around the construction.

Ragged road conditions, particularly at the entrances of businesses where large holes dug by commuters can be found in the gravel, combined with heavy traffic are the one-two punch businesses are finding difficult to endure.

In Vancheri’s case, piles of dirt dozens of feet high near the junction of East Causeway Approach and U.S. 190 are overshadowing his restaurant.

“On a windy day, I can’t even open the doors,” Vancheri said while standing in his vacant parking lot pointing at the makeshift mountains trumping the passing cars.

The $23 million project began in November 2006, DOTD Project Engineer Larry Sharp said.

Paid for by state money, the goal is to widen the busiest corridor in Mandeville from a two-lane to a five-lane highway, with two directional lanes going each way and one turning lane.

Originally projected to be completed earlier this year and then pushed back a month at a time, the new completion date is sometime at year’s end when the allotted contract days expire for the contractors, Sharp said.

“They’re getting ready to put the final lift of asphalt,” Sharp said. “It’s just a matter of dressing it up and doing the driveways and sidewalks.”

As for the piles in front of Vancheri’s restaurant, Sharp said that material will be used in the sloping and dressing stage.

Like any construction project, delays are inevitable, Rush said, but it’s about the big picture.

“When the project is done, businesses along that portion of 190 will see increased patronage because of the increased amounts of traffic that can travel more efficiently along the road,” Rush said.

The biggest delay contractors encountered came in the beginning of the project when they discovered the existing foundation under the road needed upgrading to support the new highway.

The U.S. 190 project is only one of several major road improvement projects occurring across the parish The most recent project to conclude was the $21.5 million Fremaux Avenue interchange project in Slidell.