CANTON – A downtown businessman says he and others are concerned over what they say are unanswered questions about the work on U.S. Rt. 11 through downtown that is scheduled to begin in May.

The $10 million project will rebuild about a mile of Main Street through downtown over the course of two construction seasons in 2012 and 2013.

Brad Mintener, who, with his wife Marilyn owns The Pear Tree at 77 Main St., polled businesspeople in the downtown area along with optometrist Adam Jaffe.

Mintener said that over the course of several weeks they spoke with more than 50 business owners and managers in a construction project survey to find out what their questions about the project are.

He said they submitted 24 questions to the state Department of Transportation office in Watertown and the Canton Village office, and received inadequate or no answers to about half of those questions.

Mintener says a “frequently asked questions” document, or FAQ, put together by DOT is not adequate.

Among the questions he cited was how local customers and employees would be directed downtown when work will require traffic to be diverted. And he said they did not get an answer to a question about advance notice of detours and lane changes that could affect the business district, and a driver’s ability to drive across a one-way lane to Miner or Hodskin Street.

The DOT FAQ says that local traffic will be able to move through town on Rt. 11 almost all the time, but could be limited to one lane at a time. DOT said the schedule is up to the contractor, but there will be a DOT engineer-in-charge (EIC) and support staff on site with a field office and that the EIC will be the “first point of contact” for inquiries.

Another question focused on use of rear entrances by Main Street businesses and signs that would direct people to the rear of those buildings when the font entrances are blocked, wondering if those signs would be posted on Court and Park streets.

Also unanswered, they said, was if vehicles would be able to drive across the Park and Court Street intersection.

They also asked the village to put one-way traffic signs at exits to public parking lots.

They wanted to know if trucks carrying USPS mail, particularly express mail, would have adequate access to the post office on Park Street. They also said “Village and rural Postage Truck pickup and access to streets is an expressed concern.”

The businesspeople wanted to know when and how parking on Main Street will be affected.

The DOT FAQ said that traffic and parking on Main Street would be maintained during the project, but that areas “will be unavailable only when the actual reconstruction work is taking place.”

Those surveyed included people at the library, a bank, and the theater, who said they were concerned about how parking for handicapped people would be affected.

The businesspeople also asked that someone – the village, DOT or the chamber of commerce -- make signs directing where employees should park and where customers should park during construction.

Another particular concern was access to Park Street, especially during college graduations, funerals, the farmers’ market, and the Holiday of Lights winter celebration.

They are seeking a meeting with DOT officials March 27, in spite of a response from DOT Acting Region 7 Director Mark Frechette saying that such a meeting would not be “prudent,” Mintener said.

DOT’s web pages on the project, including FAQs, are at https://www.dot.ny.gov/regional-offices/region7/projects/cantonvillageproject.