By Mia Lamar

It is a sunny Saturday afternoon in Union Square, one of the first of the new season and a good day for a walk and some shopping. But on Somerville Avenue, home to a stretch of retail shops and eateries, the sidewalk crumbles into the street. Shattered glass glints in the warm spring sun. Heavy construction equipment lies in a heap at the intersection of Somerville and Bow.

This is no Fifth Avenue.

For the owners of businesses lining Somerville Avenue, the now year-old reconstruction project has been a long road of frustration, and for many, serious financial loss. These losses are tempered only by anticipations of what the new, shiny Somerville Avenue will bring for business.

Jon O’Toole, co-owner of Grand, a clothing and home-goods boutique that faces the Somerville and Bow Intersection, makes light of the mess outside his shop windows.

‚ÄúWe want more of it!‚Äù jokes O’Toole. ‚ÄúBigger bulldozers.‚Äù 

Acknowledging ‚Äúconstruction is a necessary evil,‚Äù O’Toole and his partner, Wendy Friedman, speak of their misfortune with the project. O’Toole and Friedman opened Grand in January and they say some friends and neighbors have told them they have yet to visit their new shop because of the construction.

‚ÄúPeople don’t come this way‚Äù because of the construction, said Friedman.

O’Toole and Friedman are not alone in their grief. All down Somerville Avenue, business owners gripe about the project. Unanticipated power outages and the disappearance of parking for customers has been particularly troubling. And, while many understood the project would be done in stages down the street, instead most of Somerville Avenue has been turned up at once; ‚Äúcarpetbombed,‚Äù said O’Toole.

Ward 3 Alderman Thomas F. Taylor said he too understood the project would be done in stages.

“That has been the biggest disappointment,” said Taylor.

Taylor, joined by Ward 2 Alderman Maryann M. Heuston and Alderman-at-Large Bruce Desmond, is seeking to negotiate with P. Gioioso and Sons, Inc., general contractors for the project, to better adapt future project plans around the needs of local businesses.

Desmond said he is concerned that as the project moves into sidewalk reconstruction, entire lengths of sidewalk will be left turned up for weeks at a time.

‚ÄúLet’s time this a little better,‚Äù he said.

Desmond also cited negotiations with Traffic and Parking, to ease parking regulations and metering, and the possibility of appointing a Clerk of Works, a city-appointed project supervisor for state projects, as solutions being evaluated to better manage future project proceedings.

A potential financial relief package, to address the loss in revenue incurred by Union Square businesses during Somerville Avenue’s reconstruction, has also been mentioned, though, Desmond acknowledges "the likelihood of that is slim."

For business owners looking towards the end of construction on Somerville Avenue, they may be quite literally halfway there. A page for the project on the Massachusetts Highway Department website declares the nearly $20.2 million project 40 percent complete as of April 17. Deep construction is expected to wrap up by the end of May. And, a spokeswoman for the Mayor’s Office, Jacqueline Rossetti, called the project ahead of schedule, an estimation shared by many familiar with project details.

"It’s a waiting game, unfortunately," said Rossetti.

Back down on Somerville Avenue, one business owner, who preferred not to be named, says he knows the project will be “good, in the long run.”

"We just have to find a way to survive until then," he said.