CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As the City of Charlotte continues to grow, its infrastructure is struggling to catch up and is paying the consequences.

Along Central Avenue, which helps connect Uptown Charlotte to Plaza Midwood, repair work continues on a water main leak. A portion of Central Avenue has been closed to traffic since early February, due to the main leak and an overflow of wastewater.

What You Need To Know

  •  Charlotte Water says Central Avenue should re-open to all traffic in mid-March

  •  Local business says this is the fourth time Charlotte Water has had to do major work in the area in last few years

  •  A portion of the road has been closed for construction since early February, closing off a major connector for Uptown and Plaza Midwood

A general manager at a restaurant near the closure says he and staff have rolled with the punches, as work continues.

“Hopefully, with this being the fourth time that they’ve done this in the past two years, in this same section, hopefully we’ll be good here. After, they get done with this. But, you never know,” said James Corwin, an assistant general manager at Moo & Brew.

Corwin says repair work along Central Avenue’s water main has disrupted traffic and business repeatedly the last two years. This time, Corwin says they were thankful the business never lost water service. Corwin is in his fifth year at the restaurant and is a Charlotte native.

“I love this area, it’s a great area of Charlotte. There’s a lot of foot traffic. You’ve always got people walking around, hanging out,” Corwin said. “Tons of new growth, tons of everything happening. And then, I think that’s also kind of what caused some of the chaos out there on the road as well.”

The water main repair near the intersection of Central Avenue and Lamar Avenue has disrupted life and business on both sides of the nearby railroad crossing, as crews work to repair the damage. Originally, businesses were told it would only take two weeks to repair, according to Corwin.

“It’s kind of picked back up, a little bit more. Lunch is still nowhere near as busy as we were. But dinner time’s still been solid, weekend’s still been OK,” Corwin said about the number of customers the last four weeks.

In a late February update, Charlotte Water said it was nearly done repairing the wastewater overflow and main leak, detailing the many fixes and improvements to the area over the course of its construction work. Additionally, Charlotte Water claims the work will be finished in mid-March, which is also when Central Avenue would re-open to through-traffic.