Philadelphia trying to convince pedestrians to take the long way around City Hall

The construction around Philadelphia City Hall is causing some problems.  City officials are trying convince pedestrians to take a sidewalk detour instead of walking in the street.

The construction fence spans the block of 15th Street in front of Dilworth Plaza and wraps around for another half block in either direction.  Paul Levy of the Center City District says with much of the initial work underground, he could have left the sidewalks open for a little while, but decided to cut off access immediately.

“We could have done interim changes, but we realized we had to do this right now because there will be constant times where being immediately adjacent to the site will be dangerous,” said Levy.

Mayor Michael Nutter says the safe way to walk just takes a bit more time.

“There is sidewalk directly across the street, unfortunately it may add two minutes to your time to get to wherever it is you want to get to,” said Nutter.  “Public safety is paramount opposed to the temporary inconvenience.”

The project will go on for more than two years.