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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Yes, The Roadways Will Be Done!


As a follow-up to my article yesterday, I wanted to answer a few questions that have been asked.

Yes! The roads will be done and open. We have already finished the paving. The remaining work is landscaping and three sidewalks that will be poured tomorrow. We are still missing a few signs that are being installed by Monroe County, but they should be done by Friday.

What are we gaining with this work? The two major gains that this work will accomplish is an improved flow and greater safety at the intersections. How will that be accomplished? The major improvements are a reduction in the number of entrances onto the main road and the creation of queues in the parking lots to make exiting a little more orderly. The entrance/exits that were directly across from the main entrances are gone, which will allow for a steadier flow in and out and fewer “dashes” across traffic lanes to get to an exit. We accomplished this by interconnecting the parking lots and allowing students to travel from lot-to-lot without going back out onto the main loop road. We also connected lots C and D to Arts Lane, so there is an alternative exit if the front of campus is congested. Now the search for that ever-elusive prime parking space can take place without multiple crossings on to the main loop road adding to its already heavy volume.  Speaking of volume, we added multiple turn lanes for left turns into parking lots, right turns off campus, and multiple lanes leaving the school. That is designed to reduce the congestion on the main loop road and allow cars to cross the front of campus without waiting in a long line at each intersection.

Will there be more entrances to the faculty lots? No, we will have an IN and an OUT gate, just like before. Those will be installed Friday. The flow has changed though, and we installed temporary signage today to help direct people. We are planning on setting out approximately 36 temporary signs Monday night to help direct everyone into the new entrances to lots. I apologize in a advance if it looks a little like an out of control yard sale, but we all know how chaotic it is the first few days, and we think this will help.

Is this the final product? We’ll see. This is a pretty radical change, and we might have possibly, - very remotely possibly,- missed something… so we will be monitoring the first few days to look for improvements. I can say that we are not satisfied with the present signage and we have plans to improve that after school starts. We will be adding a few more and moving a couple to better point you to the entrances.

If you see problems, or opportunities for improvement as I like to call them, please let me know. We’ll be happy to hear your suggestions.

Happy motoring to all, and have a great new year.

Blaine Grindle
Facilities Engineering
09/04/2009