Construction alters traffic patternsThe repaving of Cates Avenue and Dan Allen Drive will alter traffic patterns for 90 days. Dan Allen Drive is detoured between Thurman Drive and Sullivan Drive, with a new four-way stop at the intersection of Varsity and Sullivan Drives.
“The roads were in such bad condition that they had to dig them completely up,” Slade McCalip, assistant director of transportation, said. “Dan Allen, especially. They couldn’t just pave over top of it one more time.”
Christine Klein, information and communication specialist for transportation, said roads will be grinded, called milling, into smaller particles and will then be repaved.
“Cates is a more involved project because they’re going down something like 14 inches in some areas,” Klein said. “They mill it and fill it in with [stone] and then you have the binder coat go down, then the final coats. It’s a huge project.”
McCalip added that some sidewalk along Cates Avenue is getting extended in addition to being repaved.
Because parking is not allowed on Cates Avenue, many students are having to find alternative parking when going to Carmichael Gym, something that some students don’t like.
“I think it’s awful because there’s nowhere to park,” Jessica Lawrence, a graduate student, said. “There’s hardly any room for the faculty to park, much less students.”
Jeremy Salter, senior in criminology who lives at Wolf Village, said the construction doesn’t effect him.
“I walk, so it doesn’t matter to me,” he said.
The project was originally intended to begin May 15 but started May 16, and the contractors have 90 days to complete the project, Klein said.
“Whether it will take that long, I don’t know,” she said. “They’ve been making good progress.”
Nearing the end of the project, the detour on Cates Avenue to Dan Allen Drive will probably run opposite the way it’s running now, Klein said.
“You’ll be able to go down Cates and go left down Dan Allen; right now you can only go right,” she said. If all goes well, contractors will continue working up Cates Avenue and progress up Dan Allen Drive, including the portion at Yarbrough Drive. Klein said they will maintain access to Yarbrough Drive with one lane, though it will probably only impact faculty and staff.
Dan Allen Drive toward Western Boulevard is “passable,” but rough. No parking will be permitted on Cates Avenue, but staff-permitted parking will be allowed in the Central Campus Lot behind Student Health Services.
McCalip advised drivers to circle around the outside of campus as an alternative route.
“That’s the best,” he said. “I mean that’s what our buses are doing. We put the Wolfline completely out of the inside of campus this summer. It goes into Wolf Village and it goes back out.”
“Basically, people need to be aware of where construction is and we’ve tried to direct people who are leaving the coliseum to use Pullen [Road] because if you go down Cates you’ll be directed down Cates and have to do a right turn and go north,” Klein said. “You have a choice if you go down Pullen, you can go north or south.”
Klein said with the construction on campus and with people unfamiliar with driving different routes with detours that it’s important for pedestrians to pay attention, use crosswalks and turn off their cell phones.
“Drivers are distracted, pedestrians are distracted,” she said. “It’s better to be safe.” She emphasized the importance of pedestrian safety on Stinson Drive at Polk Hall, where there’s one lane of traffic that buses will be using.
McCalip said the pavement was in bad shape, but that it was normal wear-and-tear.
“[The streets] were crumbling,” he said. “The pavement was beyond repair so we had to dig it up and put in new. It’s just normal aging of pavement.”