From August 3 to 17, the main artery leading to the Murr Tower from Sanayeh and the Hamra district, Spears Street, was closed. As a consequence, many shops were forced to close down temporarily. A leading victim was the Barbar sandwich outlet, which had to close for two weeks, sending home 85 employees and reporting an estimated loss in sales of some $100,000.
“For 23 years Barbar never closed,” said Abed Serwan, the manager of Barbar’s Spears outlet. “But now we did not have a choice.” Serwan complained that for one year there has been work on Spears Street almost every month. Unlike its outlet in Hamra, the Spears outlet depends more on drive-by customers.
Other shops, mainly small groceries and souvenir shops, are estimated to have suffered losses of roughly up to 70% during the period of roadworks. Mustapha Yamout, who runs a tourist pension on Spears, also said that in the past year there have been eight major works and at least 20 minor ones. “Couldn’t that have been done in a more efficient way?” he asked.
The works on Spears are part of an overall project to refurbish some 90 streets in Beirut. “The whole infrastructure for sewage, water and electricity needed changing, after which the road needed re-asphalting,” said the engineer in charge of the operation, William Debs, who works for Elie Selwan contracting company.
According to him, “people always complain,” even though normal procedures were followed in an attempt to reduce discomfort to a minimum. “So, normally we always work on one side of the road, keeping the other side open to traffic.”
But why close Spears Street in the middle of the tourist season? “According to the traffic police,” Debs said, “there’s less traffic in summer, as schools and many offices are closed. Also, the municipality asked us to work during school holidays.” So are the works finished? “We need to put just one more layer of asphalt next month,” Debs said. “But that’s only one night of work.”
