A Winnipeg greenhouse owner is so fed up with endless construction projects, he took matters into his own hands and drove over freshly-poured asphalt curbs that were blocking traffic from getting to his business.

Sumka Brothers Greenhouses on Peguis Street has been in business in Transcona for 40 years. When they moved to the area 25 years ago, there were empty fields around them. Now, there are housing developments popping up all around.

Crews were making a median on the street that blocked access to the business.

"It sort of enraged me, I got really pissed off and I just took it upon myself and drove over the asphalt curbs, destroying the asphalt curbs because they were just poured," said George Sumka, who runs the business with his two brothers.

Sumka was on his way to his family's greenhouse on Friday, Oct. 28, when he came across construction crews blocking Peguis Street at Transcona Boulevard. Crews told him to approach his property from the north, but when he did he encountered another barricade at that end. A Transcona business owner is upset with the city over lack of communication about construction. 2:29

Sumka said he drove over the boulevard to get around the piece of heavy equipment blocking the road, but when he made his way south on Peguis Street, he realized crews had installed an asphalt curb that blocked one of the approaches to his business.

At that point, Sumka was so frustrated, he drove over the fresh asphalt, destroying the newly-laid curb.

"The person that was in charge said, 'You can't do that' and I says 'Yeah, I did, and I'm going do it again'. And I backed up and did it again. Because I was so upset that nobody had told me what was going on," Sumka said.

Winnipeg police were called and were able to mediate the situation. No charges were laid and there is no ongoing investigation. George said he's embarrassed about the way he handled things and is sorry police had to get involved.

He said no one from the city, or the developer, contacted him about any of the plans and his frustration reached a boiling point that day.

"It makes me feel like the city figures I'm a piece of trash that they can just push off to the side and not worry about me," said Sumka.

"I was here long before they developed the road, before they even thought of developing the road, I should have had some say in it."

The city said the road work on Peguis is a developer-led project and it is up to the developer to let property owners know if they will be affected by construction. The asphalt curb that was laid across Sumka's approach was similar to this one. It has since been removed. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

"In developer-led projects, it is the city's expectation that the developer and their consultants communicate with area businesses and residents about changes that may affect them prior to work beginning," said a spokesperson for the city in an email.

The work on Peguis Street was being done to install a left turn lane for southbound traffic at the intersection at Transcona Boulevard, which is just south of the Sumka's property.

The left turn lane required a median to be installed that extended past one of the approaches to the greenhouse, restricting access if a driver was coming from the south.

"The developer has acknowledged they did not meet this expectation and the city has addressed this with them. It is our understanding that the developer and their consultant have since been in contact with Mr. Sumka to discuss his concerns," said the city spokesperson.

The city spokesperson said the developer in question was North Grassie Properties Inc, however when CBC contacted the company they said they were not responsible for any of the road work north of Ravelston Ave, which is where the Sumka's property is located.

The median that was being put in place on October 28 has since been shortened and the asphalt curb was removed, for now. George Sumka and his daughter, Maryann Sumka, are worried about how the ongoing construction will affect their family business that has been located on Peguis Street for the last 25 years. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

Sumka said he spoke with someone from Stantec, an engineering company handling the project. He said he was told the median would eventually be extended once the road is twinned, and he would permanently lose access to his business from the south.

This doesn't sit well with Sumka, who said most of his customers come from the south from the busy Regent Avenue area. He says those customers would have to drive past his business and eventually make a U-turn in the residential development.

"If [the customers] have to look for an entrance to come in, you're going to get upset and end up going somewhere else," he said.

An employee at Stantec declined to comment.

Construction hit family business hard

Sumka Brothers Greenhouses have watched development in the area grow.

Over the years, Sumka said he's worked to accommodate the new residential communities and be a good neighbour but he feels he's been left out of communications about the road work and the future of the area.

For him, it started in 2014 when there were several road closures in the area and none of them were properly communicated to him.

"That year when they were doing the construction I lost probably about $80,000 in revenue from the closure of the roads," said Sumka. Sumka Brothers Greenhouses suffered financial losses after several roads were closed around their Peguis Street business due to construction in 2014. (Supplied)

George's daughter, Maryann Sumka, says their family business did everything that was asked of them over the years to accommodate development of the road, including paying for a second approach to be put in.

"They made a big fuss about us fixing our approaches and spending money to do that so it would work better with the roads," she said.

"We accommodated them, we were excited. Development is good," said Maryann.

She said that same year that the roads were closed, they were told that the closures would be delayed until after their busy spring season was over in July, but that didn't happen.

"We might as well have not opened that year," said Maryann, adding they were also told by one of the developers that they would be compensated for extra advertising costs to let their customers know that they were open during construction, which also never happened.

"We suffered financial losses that were basically out of this world," she said.

After years of dealing with construction and road closures, Maryann said the latest incident made them feel even more frustrated.

"We bounced back a little bit, but now to think that we are going to go through that again and not know which streets are closed...our customers are not going to be able to get to us. We can't keep doing this. We can't suffer another year like that," she said. George Sumka says construction workers placed an asphalt curb, similar to the one above, that blocked access to his business, Sumka Brothers Greenhouses, on Friday October 28. (Holly Caruk/CBC)

City Councillor Russ Wyatt, said he's aware of the Sumka's concerns and agreed the city should have done more to communicate.

"Nobody had the courtesy to pick up the phone and let him know or give him a call and that's not acceptable," said Wyatt, adding a lack of communication with residents and businesses is an ongoing problem at the city.

"Terrible communication. Poor traffic planning. All these sorts of things are not being co-ordinated. There is no sense of the customer, and the customer is people like Mr. Sumka," said Wyatt.

The Sumka family is happy that the asphalt curb and the median have been removed, for now, but he feels abandoned by the city and left to fight for answers on his own.

"Going forward I would like the city to come sit down with me and talk about viable alternatives to this," he said.