By Amy Sullivan

For about two years, every golfer who took to the greens at Mount Hood Memorial Park and Golf Course in Melrose had a score of zero on hole 12. This wasn’t because golfers at this small, but well-kept course are so good they score better than a hole-in-one. It’s because hole 12 has been filled with dirt.

The dirt that plagued hole 12 came from the heart of Boston’s Central Artery/Tunnel Project, better known as the Big Dig. The city of Melrose agreed to accept about 700 tons of dirt from the Dig, and it ended up on hole 12.

Mount Hood’s story isn’t unique. Whether it’s piles of dirt or re-routed traffic, or even residual dust from construction, many businesses have been harmed or even forced to close because of the difficulties they have faced during the Big Dig.

Danny Dimare, owner of Dairy Fresh Candies on Salem Street in the heart of the North End, said he is beginning to get frustrated. The Big Dig is “at the point where it is about 90 percent done, but what is going on is happening right outside our door,” he said.

In fact, the project broke ground in 1991. Thirteen years later it’s nearly complete. Yet, even as the Big Dig construction nears completion, entire neighborhoods, the North End, for example, are still suffering its consequences.

Dimare’s family has owned his business and been a part of the North End community since 1957. He said the project’s effects can be felt all throughout the neighborhood.

“We suffered through a time where a lot of businesses couldn’t hang in there,” he said. “We suffered through a lot of things, losing power at times, route changes and delivery difficulties.”

Boston is a “walking city” and many businesses rely on a steady flow of pedestrians. Confusing detours, blocked walkways and road closings have been a source of stress for anyone trying to do business in the path of the construction.

Danielle Dirusso, an employee of Frances Ray Jules Salon on Canal Street, said her shop has been impaired by the mess of pedestrian detours that either confuse pedestrians or send them away from Canal Street.

“We lost a lot of the foot traffic that was coming down Canal Street, because that traffic is now being directed down other streets,” Dirusso said.

Cooper Street,the home of Janice Christina’s J’B Variety store, was shut down by construction.

“They block-ed this street off for about a year and a half,” Christina said. “Once [pedestrians] got used to going the other way, we never got their business back.”

Thomas Nally, the planning director for the Artery Business Committee, said the nature of the construction is changing and that might help reduce the stress on local businesses.

“The peak years of construction impact were probably three or four years ago,” he said. “Now, where there is a good deal of activity in certain locations, the primary impact is really just some of the demolition starting to take place.”

Nally also said that the mitigation office of the project is taking very extensive measures to ensure the demolition’s cause the least disruption possible to neighboring businesses. He said representatives from the office’s extensive outreach program talk to the local businesses and attempt to schedule demolition during nights and weekends and times that are the least problematic.

The lack of parking is also a major issue for many of these small businesses. Parking is difficult enough in a city built when the horse and carriage was still the main mode of transportation; but ripped up roads, large pieces of equipment and detours further limit the parking options.

“We lost most of our parking,” Christina said. “And what is left is all resident parking. How are people supposed to come here if they can’t park their cars?”

Barbara Manning, regional advocate for the Small Business Administration, said one of the largest issues brought to the attention of those controlling the project was the lack of parking in the North End.

Alan Caparella, an employee at Mother Anna’s Restaurant, said the complications with the roadways have been the main cause for concern at the eatery on Hanover Street, which is the oldest family-owned restaurant in the North End.

“How do you tell someone who calls up your restaurant and asks for directions that you’re not sure because they change the roads all of the time?” he said.

Caparella also said that the attention the project attracts seems to scare away many of the tourists.

“Because of all the hype about it, people don’t want to come in from out of town,” he said. “All this publicity is killing us.”

As the Big Dig’s finish date looms, many business owners are hoping the positive outcome of the completed project might soon overshadow the hardships they have been facing.

“At this point we can just hope it will be over soon and hope that what they are doing out there will benefit the neighborhood,” he said.

Holly Sutherland of the Central Artery/Tunnel Project’s Public Information Department also said that local businesses are catered to as much as possible. “We had liaisons and mitigation folks who have meeting after meeting with all the businesses, and what they would do is they would get a sense of the communities needs and they would write into the constructions contract specifics in terms of noise and dust and access to people’s businesses,” she said.

When business employees do have complaints, Sutherland said, the Big Dig has a 24-hour hotline that they can call.

Manning also said that although there are still problems stemming from the ongoing construction, some areas are already seeing a turnaround.

Even Mount Hood found a way to turn a nuisance into a masterpiece. The dirt dumped onto the course has been graded and used to create a new hole 12.

“We created a brand new hole here that is spectacular, and we’ve increased play here over the last year, since we created the new hole,” said Mike O’Brien, an employee of Mount Hood who has played the course for more than 30 years.

So perhaps the bright side of the Big Dig will soon show itself to areas like the North End. Yet some see the effects of the construction far outlasting the completion of the project.

“It is sad to see,” added Christina. “I was born here, raised here, and I own my business here. What’s happened in the past few years is just sad.”