The next step to improving pedestrian safety through the Easy Streets project on campus began Tuesday with the start of construction on the realignment of the intersection South Stadium Road and South Campus Drive.
Easy Streets Phase II, Part 2 aims to improve the safety of the intersection at Fieldhouse Drive and South Campus Drive, said Jeff Campbell, senior director of Administrative Services, Risk Management and Parking.
“We kind of felt like the intersection at Fieldhouse and South Campus is just an area that has potential for some accidents because people don’t really know whether they should stop or whether they should go,” Campbell said. “It’s just not very clear.”
The Easy Streets project is part of a campus-wide construction master in progress. Phase II is projected to end by the beginning of next semester, said Dennis Mitchell, Assistant Director of Physical Plant/Facility Services.
About two years ago Easy Streets Phase I changed the parallel parking near the Greek Amphitheater to perpendicular parking.
The alignment of South Stadium Road and South Campus Drive allows for development to begin on Etienne de Bore’ Street, making it the main north-south connection between South Stadium Road and Nicholson Drive Extension once construction on Patrick F. Taylor Hallis completed, Campbell said.
Easy Streets Phase II includes the building of a new road, connecting Fieldhouse Drive to Etienne de Bore’ Street and running along the Nuclear Science building, Mitchell said. The new road will include a bike lane.
“Bicyclists will be able to use it as well as pedestrians,” Mitchell said.
German instructor Justin Myers, who rides his bicycle around campus, said he thinks a bike lane will be beneficial, especially since people can be inattentive to bikers.
“I think that will keep the cyclists safe from cars as well as keep any collision from people on the sidewalk getting run over by people on a bike and stuff like that, so I think it’ll be good for everybody,” Myers said.
The new road was the previous site of an unusually shaped parking lot, he said.
“It was just kind of a patchwork parking lot so a lot of that’s been torn up and modified to accommodate this new road,” Mitchell said.
The new road will have campus standard-sized sidewalks, 8-feet wide, and improved crosswalks.
The construction will run through the B and C parking lots along South Stadium Road and South Campus Drive, Campbell said. To offset the blocked parking spaces, spots have been made available in the Old Front Nine Lot along CEBA Lane and in the South Stadium Lot, according to the Parking and Transportation Services website.
The next phase of the Easy Streets project is not planned yet, but Mitchell said he thinks there will be another.
“We’re about to embark on a campus master plan, an update to the campus master plan, so once we get through that process, we’ll be able to prioritize and look at that future,” Mitchell said. “We’re going to build this one, and then we’re going to plan for the next one.”