ATLANTA — Construction crews are at work on the Peachtree Creek Bridge. It will need to be demolished and rebuilt after a fire destroyed too much of it to save last month.
It's an enormous project that's going to take some time. Business owners in the area said this has impacted them.
"I am trying not to cry, because it breaks my heart," said Sara Keith, the owner of Atlanta School of Photography.
Her business is located right off Cheshire Bridge Road. She said the entire stretch impacted by the bridge fire is a mess.
"It's not anything someone would drive through and say, 'I would like to stop here.' It doesn't feel clean or attractive in any way," she said.
Keith said the businesses closest to the fire are on the brink of collapse because they've been getting fewer customers.
"They've had a drop in business between 40-60%, which is a death sentence," she said.
Many of those businesses have now banded together to form the Cheshire Bridge Business Coalition. The group sent a formal letter to the city to ask for help.
"There's COVID funds that have not been used, so we are hoping to get those reallocated as our disaster relief, which we truly believe that this would be," she said.
Keith said for businesses that barely survived the pandemic, the bridge fire is another setback.
"We've worked really hard over the last two years to keep our businesses afloat, to keep our dreams alive, to keep our employees employed, so they can go back home to their families with a paycheck," she said.
The business owners are asking the city to clean up the trash near the fire, install signage to assure customers their businesses are open, and provide financial support so they can make it through this time.
"As long as it can keep the business open and operational at cost, that's really all we are asking for. Not a lot, but just some sort of help," she said.
She said so far the city has not responded. Construction of the bridge is 80% done and expected to take a year, according to the city public works department. They did not provide a statement about the business owners' concerns.