Roadwork on St-Laurent between Bernard and Bellechasse has merchants once again worrying about how it will affect their businesses.`

Not that they knew the three-month long project was coming.

Andre Labrosse, the owner of Cie Uniforms on the Main just above Bellechasse in Mile End, hadn't received any notice the roadwork was about to begin or how long it will last.

"Any time you see construction, you get nervous because you never know when it's going to end," he says. "You know when it starts and that's it. That's the problem with the city of Montreal."

Other merchants still have painful memories of the endless construction projects of five years ago and more recent work done on Bernard. 

"When customers came, it took them an hour because they were all mixed up in all types of traffic," says Million Carpets and Tiles owner John Skoda. "They were all commenting on how frustrated they were."

The electrical sewer and water main work is scheduled to last three months.