Hotels brace for night repaving in busy summer season

Night repaving of Meridian Street, scheduled for August, could disturb hotel guests and hurt business during the busiest season of the year.

Employees at hotels along a stretch of Meridian Street slated for night repaving are bracing for the project’s impact on their business and on their guests.
The Bellingham City Council voted 7-0 Monday to allow repaving of Meridian Street between Birchwood Avenue and Interstate 5, along with several other sections of road throughout the city.
The repaving will occur only between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m., according to a letter from Rick Niebruegge, project manager for Granite Construction, the company doing the repaving. The Meridian Street work is expected to last eight days, starting in August.
Niebruegge wrote to the city that doing the work at night would shorten the length of the project and reduce its impact on traffic and on homeowners.
The areas that will be repaved are mainly commercial or industrial, so there aren’t many homeowners who could be impacted. The section of Meridian Street slated for repaving does not have homes directly along it; Bellingham Golf and Country Club stretches along one side of the street and commercial buildings, including two hotels, are on the other.
Night noise excused
Employees of these hotels say they worry the project could hurt their businesses.
“[A quiet room] is the main thing that people ask for, especially being right next to the freeway,” said Alexis Jones, a front desk clerk at EconoLodge Inn and Suites on Meridian Street next to Interstate 5.
Jones said potential guests, who already need reassurance about noise at a hotel near the freeway, could be wary of staying at a hotel that is also right next to nighttime road work.
“It’s already busy,” she said. “You have to tell people it does quiet down at night, and that does throw that whole theory out the window.”
In its summary statement to the City Council Monday, Granite Construction asked to be excused from following the section of the Bellingham Municipal Code that restricts construction noise between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. The request was granted when the repaving project was approved.
Potential for complaints
Val Park, a front-desk employee at Rodeway Inn, said he anticipates guests complaining about the noise.
“If it’s loud, that’s going to piss off a lot of people here,” Park said.
Noise concerns aside, Park said the repaving work could mean people won’t stop in at the hotel in the first place, even if the work is done at night.
“There’s still a lot of walk-in guests during the night,” Park said. “People are going to think it’s inconvenient to stay here as opposed to motels down on Samish [Way].”
Park said August is one of the hotel’s busiest seasons.
#