City trying to speed up the $16.9 million project to rebuild High Street between Lane and Arcadia avenues.

"I can tell you what I lost last month ... $22,000 in business," Galipeau said, comparing April 2009 to April 2008. "We're getting killed."

The three-quarter-mile stretch of High Street links Ohio State University to Clintonville and is lined with mom-and-pop shops, restaurants and bars in the Old North Columbus neighborhood.

clipped from www.dispatch.com Reconstruction has left N. High Street a mess between Arcadia and Lane avenues. Some owners say their businesses are in the same shape. North Campus Video has weathered economic ups and downs for three decades. But recession or no recession, manager Jeff Galipeau says his current financial troubles are the result of what's going on right outside the door of his University District business. The city is trying to speed up the $16.9 million project to rebuild High Street between Lane and Arcadia avenues. The project, which started in June 2008, has blocked lanes on the west side of the street and reduced traffic to one lane in each direction. Ohio State University student Dusty Gray, 30, makes his way through a maze of construction equipment and traffic barriers along N. High Street. The city is trying to speed up the $16.9 million reconstruction project, which began in June last year.