NOTE: ODOT's plans to close West First Street from Robert Drive to Red Cross Lane have been delayed. The closure was planned for today. We will bring you more information on this when it becomes available.

Downtown Dayton’s northwest quadrant will be a little tougher to access beginning Wednesday, as a section of West First Street will close for as much as four years as part of Interstate 75 construction.

Some businesses and residents on West First Street are concerned about the construction, which will require a detour for drivers coming from the Salem Avenue bridge. West First Street already lost significant traffic last year, when the I-75 ramps to the street closed.

“Unfortunately, it’s going to have an adverse effect on our business, because if the clients can’t have easy access to our office, it puts them off and makes them perhaps want to find someone else to represent them,” said Margaret Shipp, a paralegal for attorney Robert Goelz.

Goelz and several other attorneys work in a small office building at 371 W. First St. That block also includes the local Red Cross office, the Dayton Business Technology High School and the First Place luxury apartments.

A medical practice, the Southwest Ohio ENT Specialists, left their building at 369 W. First St. this month for a site a mile south of downtown.

The new detour will mean a Salem Avenue driver must go 1.1 miles and take six turns to travel the quarter-mile to the 300 block of West First. Business Technology High School students who previously had a bus stop in front of their building now will use a stop on Third Street.

Starting Wednesday, West First Street will be closed from Robert Drive to Red Cross Lane — basically the area under and around the I-75 bridge. The Salem bridge will remain open, but southbound bridge traffic will have to turn right on Robert Drive after crossing the river, then turn left on Third Street to enter downtown.

Annette Morkel, property manager of the First Place luxury apartments at 330 W. First St., said the detour is a concern, but added that it hasn’t hurt occupancy, with only one vacancy among 50 units.

“I’m extremely worried about the traffic, because there is no traffic right now,” Morkel said. “It’s already quiet. … It’s not like the Oregon District, so The Landing and us have a (different) sales job to do. You can still go north, south, east or west — you just have to know your way around.”

Also beginning Wednesday, Robert Drive will be closed between Third and Fifth streets for an indefinite period.