Many of the orange construction signs littering campus will disappear this week, an absence welcomed by travelers both on and off the road. l Completing more than a dozen construction projects this summer was essential for launching the university's plan to build the two large-scale railroad overpass projects scheduled for 2008. l The summer construction prepared roads for the increased traffic that will be redirected through campus during the project. l "You drive on campus and you can't go a quarter of a mile without seeing an orange sign," said university engineer Robert Nestle, adding that the vast majority of construction will be done this week.
The projects that remain are minuscule in comparison to construction this summer, Nestle said, such as fixing sidewalks and bus stops, which won't cause detours for drivers this fall.
But it's pedestrians who will encounter the most detours. The construction on the east corner of Farm Lane and Auditorium Road, outside of Bessey Hall, ran into unforeseen rocky ground while putting in steam pipes, Nestle said.
The project was scheduled to be done before students returned, but Nestle said he thinks it will be about a month before it's complete.
"They are making progress, but it will not be done as quickly as we hoped," he said.
Pedestrians have to step into Farm Lane to get around the chain-link fence that surrounds the construction.
"Anytime I try to maneuver through the middle of campus, it's a pain," said Kim Keezer, a family and communications senior. Keezer commutes three days a week from Ann Arbor and said the construction this summer has affected her more as a pedestrian than as a driver. "Where I've needed to go, they've at least had a lane open," she said. "If I want to walk around campus — then I've been distressed. I find the sidewalk just ends. … There is no easy way around, especially by Bessey."
Lamoniqca Caver has to walk around the construction to get to class and said she doesn't feel safe without the sidewalk.
"You basically almost have to walk into the street to get to the corner," the medical technology junior said. "It's going to be hectic, and there's going to be a lot of accidents because a lot of people ride bikes. … It's messed up."
Caver said she is going to take the bus to avoid maneuvering around the construction.
"You won't catch me walking there unless I have to," she said.
The construction has also forced Capital Area Transportation Authority, or CATA, buses to reroute this summer, said Jim Froehlich, CATA service planning manager.
"It's been a major issue — not just campus, system-wide," Froehlich said.
The biggest obstacle on campus was the construction at Bogue Street and Wilson Road, he said. The project changed the intersection from a traffic circle to a traditional intersection with a signal to allow more traffic.
Nestle said the intersection is almost finished, and the project is on time for completion. CATA doesn't anticipate any rerouting for the fall, Froehlich said.
"I think the university does a good job in communicating the work, and it's certainly in our benefit to have these things done," he said. "(But) when you see the big hole in the ground, you think, 'How in the world are they going to get it done?'"
Though the university has alerted CATA to some last-minute projects in the past, they have always been finished on time, Froehlich said.
Construction will continue into the fall, as anticipated, on the renovation of Snyder and Phillips halls and Bogue Street by the Veterinary Medical Center, Nestle said.
The renovations are expected to continue until August 2007, and they include new windows, a sprinkler alarm system, updating bathrooms and plumbing and heating systems. Physics Road, in front of Snyder and Phillips halls, will remain inaccessible during construction. Dormitory Road will be open to traffic.
Bogue Street will remain closed until September from Service Road to the south entrance of the Veterinary Medical Center parking lot.
