New closures and one-way controls are coming to West Fourth Street between Vine Street and McCarran Boulevard as the Fourth Street Safety Project continues.
Starting Thursday, October 1, West Fourth Street will be closed between Vine Street and Keystone Avenue. Detours will be available via Second and Fifth Streets. The Fourth Street-Keystone Avenue intersection will remain open.
Also on Thursday, the eastbound lanes will close from Keystone Avenue to Stoker Avenue, meaning only westbound traffic will have access. Eastbound traffic must go north on Stoker, then take West Seventh Street.
Both of the aforementioned closures are expected to wrap up on Thursday, October 29.
On Monday, October 5, the stretch of Fourth Street from McCarran to Summit Ridge Drive will only be open to eastbound traffic. This will last until November 13, and westbound traffic can use Summit Ridge in the meantime.
Even without these closures in place, local businesses have already felt a pinch from this project.
"We're on average about 30 to 35% down each and every month since last year,” says Brian Lalor, manager of Whispering Vine Wine Company.
Whispering Vine Wine Company is a wine store and restaurant. It’s been in Reno for 27 years, and at its current location for the last 10.
Outside of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Lalor says the Fourth Street project has taken the biggest bite out of sales.
“We have a lot of locals. We have a lot of regulars,” he says. “When we see less and less of those, we know that we're, you know. It's been impactful for us."
He says the project is confusing customers, who don't know where to turn, or if they can.
“A lot of our customers are confused as to where to go in. And I've seen some of them just drive past,” Lalor says.
Just down the road, the El Tavern Motel and Liquor Store is feeling that as well. Both the people buying their stock and the people bringing it in are confused.
“Even when delivery comes in and they don't know which way to go. So many times, we don't have a delivery, and they come after a week,” says Gurpreet Kaur, the owner.
Gerson Tobar lives right in the middle of the work zone. Once the one-way controls start, he'll have to go the long way, using Stoker and Seventh Street just to go east. He says this will have major impacts on his wallet.
“I have a big truck, and the gas prices aren't getting cheaper,” he says.
Tobar says his truck only gets around eight miles per gallon. And the constant changes to the travel lanes aren't helping either.
“There's always some pattern change to traffic or so,” he says. “Before, we couldn't make the turn into our residence here."
The Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County says it is closing the road to get the project done faster.
“We're going to get it all done in one season and then it'll be back,” says Scott Gibson, the project manager for the Fourth Street construction. “We won't be back for the next 20, 30, 40 years.”
Even after the project is done and business access is much smoother, Kaur says the damage is already done.
“If we lose the people, then they go to the other stores, you know, and they won't come back,” she says.
RTC Washoe says the project is on track to be completed in mid-November.
