The city of Pullman’s project to revitalize downtown is running behind schedule.

Mayor Francis Benjamin said the city’s consultant Welch Comer, a Coeur d’Alene-based engineering firm, notified staff the project’s completion date has been delayed to November. It was anticipated the six-month construction period would finish in October.

The project is a city-led initiative to fully upgrade downtown’s utilities, streets, sidewalks and more. The venture encompasses all of Main Street, from Grand Avenue to Spring Street.

Since April, the area has been closed to traffic while crews from Apollo Inc., a Kennewick, Wash.-based construction company, rebuild downtown.

Benjamin said the contract stipulated Main Street would reopen to at least one lane of traffic by Oct. 15, but is now pushed to Nov. 1. The project should be fully completed by Nov. 22, which he said is two days behind the agreed upon timeframe.

The delay was mainly caused by contaminated soil and underground work. Benjamin said many utilities haven’t been touched since being installed around a century ago. And over the course of Pullman’s life, a few gas stations, car repair shops and fertilizer stores have been housed downtown.

Soil contamination was anticipated, he said, and a plan was put in place to address the pollutants. Early this summer, crews sampled and treated the area while properly disposing of the contaminated soil.

Benjamin said the contract specifies Apollo would face fines from the city for being over schedule, however change orders have been put in place that may prevent this. He said the Pullman City Council approved the new timeline and may consider adjusting the contract during its next meeting.

Other than the delay, Benjamin said construction has gone well. Crews have run into a few issues, but he said there hasn’t been any significant crisis.

According to past Moscow-Pullman Daily News reporting, a gas line ruptured in May which caused an outage to downtown customers for a day. A water line rupture in June caused a couple businesses to lose service for a short period of time.

The city ran into more hiccups while planning the project. It was anticipated the rebuild would begin in the summer of 2023, however inflated construction market costs led the council to push back the start date.

When the city first sent out the project to bid in the fall of 2023, it received no contractors willing to do the work for an initially anticipated four-month construction timeline.

Early this year when Apollo accepted the city’s bid, the council was informed the project was over budget. According to past reporting, the project was first estimated to cost $9.4 million total. Apollo agreed to rebuild the area for $8.7 million, and the project ended up at nearly $11.7 million total after contracting Welch Comer to create the design.

The project was funded by $9.5 million from the American Rescue Plan Act. Earlier this month the Whitman County Commissioners gave the city $200,000 to help fund Project Downtown.

Francis said the city plans to make up for additional costs by using money from local city tax dollars like the city’s water and sewer utilities fund along with other options. Taking from these reserves won’t negatively affect the city’s operations or delay any future projects.

Some downtown business owners have voiced frustrations, saying business is hurting because of the construction project.

Pam Dabolt, owner of Palouse Country Candy, said while downtown sidewalks have stayed open, she’s seen a significant decline in customers.

She saw a 25% decline in business when the rebuild began, which dropped further to 50%. Dabolt said she’s been forced to take money out of her personal accounts to cover the bills of the store.

“I’ve never been against this project,” she said. “But it’s just made life challenging. I think, you know, people just don’t like to be around the construction zone.”

She’s not alone. Michelle Kelly, owner of Michelle’s Closet, said her business is struggling to operate because of the project. She and other retail businesses anticipated sales to fall 30%, but she said they have seen anywhere from a 40% to 80% decline.

Kelly said there aren’t a lot of options for loans or financial relief, either. She said many businesses already used COVID-19 relief funds, and there isn’t much else to apply to.

“We all knew that the construction needed to be done,” she said. “But it’s hitting everybody a lot harder than all of us anticipated.

Dabolt and Kelly said they hope construction will wrap up as soon as possible and not run into the holiday season.

“The only redeeming thing this year will be the holidays,” Dabolt said. “We just want to get back to some degree of normalcy.”

Benjamin said he’s heard owners’ concerns, and encourages people to visit downtown and to support businesses.

More information about Project Downtown Pullman is available at projectdowntownpullman.org.

Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com.