Stuart Johnston is one of two service station owners in Boorowa affected by the current detour through part of the town.

Business has been getting worse for Mr Johnston since the detour came into action on Friday.

Mr Johnston said his Saturday trade remained steady but Sunday’s business was worse and his Monday trading was down by at least a third.

Mr Johnston is expecting it to only get worse while the detour remains in place.

Accessing his Caltex Service Station requires a detour of almost one kilometre according to Mr Johnston who said he was grateful to the customers who were making the effort to keep supporting him.

“I am losing money with every truck that does not fill up here,” Mr Johnston said.

“Each truck takes between $300 to $400 to fill with fuel and I normally average at least two to three trucks a day” said Mr Johnston.

Reg Hodge however, owner of West Corner Café is yet to experience any downturn that could be attributed to the detour.

“It doesn’t seem to have had much effect on my business but it is early days yet,” Mr Hodge said.

Mr Hodge queried whether the work shouldn’t have been started after the busy school holiday period, a sentiment shared by local real estate operator Andrew Mitchell.

“The detour has to be costing local businesses trade every day,” said Mr Mitchell.

“I understand the work has to be done and I believe that it could have been organised better to ease confusion over directions as it is making it difficult for locals and visitors alike.”

Boorowa Shire General Manager David Philpott has defended the work being carried out by Council on behalf of the RTA as being unavoidable.

“Boorowa Council is a contractor of the RTA, as such we were told when the work would be done”

Mr Philpott said that as the planning for the upgrade was only finalised late November, the difficulty in co-ordinating the specialised equipment required for the earthworks and the infrastructure had to be taken into account.

“It (the infrastructure work)had to be done before the work commenced,” Mr Philpott said.

Mr Philpott indicated that weather permitting, the work should only take three weeks from when the existing roadway is dug-out. This stage of the project is expected to be started by the end of the week.