Smithfield — About 50 business owners from downtown and West Smithfield turned out Thursday for a meeting about the U.S. 70 Business bridge replacement project, and none spoke in favor of closing the bridge.

The Downtown Smithfield Development Corp. hosted the meeting. The group is lobbying to keep the bridge open during construction without razing the Little Brown Jug.

The N.C. Department of Transportation will start construction in 2012, and it is trying to decide whether to leave two lanes open or close the bridge and detour traffic through the new Booker Dairy Road Extension. Leaving two lanes open would spell the end for the Jug, because the contractor would need the land for a construction-staging area.

“That is putting business against business and neighbor against neighbor,” said Chris Johnson, executive director of the downtown group. “It’s like pick your poison. Let’s try to figure out saving downtown as well as saving the Little Brown Jug.”

Johnson cited numerous reasons why keeping the bridge open was the best option. Businesses on both sides of the bridge would suffer from less traffic, he said.

“The long-term impact on downtown and West Smithfield would be catastrophic,” he said. “You’re looking at easily six to seven years of hardship in both communities.”

Business owners agreed with Johnson’s assessment. All who spoke at the meeting and filled out comment sheets were strongly opposed to closing the bridge.

Nick Hammer, manager of Kmart in West Smithfield, said about 30 percent of his business is from people across the bridge, and Kmart would lose their business if the bridge closed. That, he said, would equate to the loss of $200,000 in pay to local employees. The store, Hammer explained, would have to cut some jobs, assuming it could stay open.

“We’re not profitable enough to sustain that for two years,” Hammer said. “That would kill us.”

Businesses that rely on out-of-town customers would suffer, as detours would make it hard to find stores. Johnson, who owns Jewel’s Formals with his wife, said about 85 percent of their business comes from outside Johnston County.

Even as they lobby to keep the bridge open, business owners said they want to make sure the Little Brown Jug doesn’t have to close. Some said the state could use other land to stage construction with less impact.

Bud Andrews of First Citizens Bank suggested that DOT use empty land on the west side of the bridge. Johnson suggested the former auto parts store on East Market Street, owned by the Centenary United Methodist Church.

Johnson and others were concerned also about the traffic impact of the detour on the historic North Smithfield neighborhood, Smithfield Middle School and Smithfield-Selma High School. School buses could have trouble getting around in the traffic.

“The traffic out there is already bad, and I can only imagine it will get worse,” Johnson said. “It’s our opinion that those streets are just not constructed to carry that many cars.”

One argument in support of closing the bridge is that traffic might back up throughout downtown if only two lanes of the bridge were open. One way to avoid that problem, Johnson said, is to make Market Street three lanes wide so lanes don’t merge at the bridge.

For now, the downtown group plans to lobby the Town Council to support keeping the bridge open.

While the DOT will make the final decision, it will likely look to the council for direction.