ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Road construction slows us all down. But what if it kept customers away from the place where you work?

It's a challenge plenty of merchants face this time of year, including one in downtown Rochester.

Making pizzas is all Chris Staffieri has known. His family opened The Pizza Stop on State Street in the 80s and as he says the rest is history.

“Which is why I think we can weather the storm with the construction," said Staffieri. "We’ve been here so long a lot of people know about it and it’s part of their routine."

The construction he’s talking about involves half of State Street in downtown Rochester being torn up. It's a project that isn’t ending soon.

“It’s always changing," said Staffieri. "It was two-way traffic and then a week ago they changed it to one-way.”

Chris spends his days catering to the lunch crowd — people working nearby who stop in for a slice.

Years ago, a line would stretch out the door. Now, it’s not hard finding a table.

“COVID didn’t help this area," Staffieri said. "That put a hurting on this area and now as it's trying to rebuild. Now you have all this construction. It’s like getting hit twice in the stomach."

Construction is expected to wrap up in summer 2023. But already Chris is starting to see businesses struggle.

“It’s nice that they want things to look nice and replace curbs and sidewalks, but at the end of the day, you have all this work done, but who’s going to be here," Staffieri said.

At the end of the day, as long as customers keep coming, so will Chris.

“It’s what we do, we’ve been doing it since 1986," he said. "We’re not going to stop now."

Work on State Street includes replacing water mains, electrical upgrades and landscaping.

The project is on track to be finished next fall.