Diners used to have to wait in line to get a table at Michelle Matecka's restaurant.

Now, the Iris and Ivory Tea Room and Cafe in Indiana Township is lucky to have a half-full dinning room.

According to Matecka, roadwork on Route 910 is keeping people away.

"You want to talk about how it can kill business?," Matecka said when asked about the construction, which at times has closed sections of the road.

The lane closures are part of a $9.1 million project to update Route 910 between the Harmarville exit on Route 28 and Saxonburg Boulevard in Indiana Township. The updates include road repaving, replacement of concrete shoulders and guide rail updates.

Matecka said many of her customers are elderly people from Harrison and New Kensington who don't want to drive through the construction.

Sales at the restaurant are down 50 percent, she said.

Matecka said she's kept in the dark about when the lanes will be closed.

"PennDOT never mentioned anything to us," she said. "There's an electrical billboard on (Route) 28 that says when the lanes will be closed, but I don't have time to drive all the way down there to find out."

The lane closures are not good for commerce, according to Mark Peck, an employee at CJ's Clubhouse in Indiana Township.

"This directly affects our business," Peck said. "We've seen a huge drop-off in customers since the lane closures began."

Peck said because the store is in an area of low population, it relies on Route 910 to bring in customers from Harmar and beyond.

"With the economy being as bad as it has been, small business is already getting pounded," he said. "This just adds to the large amount of problems."

PennDOT hasn't said when construction will end but estimates the work should be completed late this year. Lane closures began in October, before a winter break in construction. The closures resumed in March.

For Matecka, the end can't come soon enough.

"I had a lady call yesterday asking if the road would be open," she said. "I told her I didn't know. I never know."

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