COLLIER COUNTY, Fla. - Business owners blame halted road construction for halting business on Immokalee Road. In some cases, owners say business is down as much as 70 percent.

They say the problem is the Northbrooke Drive bridge project, now months past its deadline.

But Collier County officials blame Tropical Storm Faye and under ground utilities for the stall, but business owners don't buy it and now customers aren't buying from them.

"I'm down about 25, 30 percent and it's all, not all because of the bridge, but a lot of it is and there's only on excuse-- incompetence," Gary Steanek said.

He finds his barber shop caught in the middle of two major construction projects-- the I-75 I-ROX construction and the Northbrooke bridge replacement on Immokalee Road.

"I mean, it's a joke," Steanek said.

And he's not alone. Mike Boutot owns a tanning salon next door.

"Well, it's at the point where we're paying out of our pockets to stay open," Boutot said.

With the Northbrooke bridge out, the only access to the Northbrooke plaza is a detour that goes past the strip mall and through a side street, but customers say that's only half the inconvenience.

"It creates a traffic congestion throughout the day and a hazardous condition because lanes are being changes when they shouldn't be," Hal Brundage said, while getting a cut at Gary's Barbershop.

The county says the South Florida Water Management District would not allow the Cocohatchee Canal to be blocked for the bridge's construction because of flooding from Faye. But business owners say that's not the case because the county's original completion date for the bridge was August 16, two days before Faye made landfall.

"You know, if they would've been on time then we wouldn't have this issue," Boutot said.

"Everybody is tired of the B.S. excuses in this county and it goes on everywhere," Steanek said.

Some owners say those excuses could end up costing them their livelihood.

"We're losing business. I mean I can't pay out of my pocket every single month to cover the bills here because of them," Boutot said.

The director from the County Transportation Department, Jay Ahmad, says the project likely won't be completed until December.

For Boutot and Steanek, that's well past the start of busy season, when they were hoping to regain some of the loses from the Summer.