Students and visitors to campus will now have to take a slightly different route as the northern entrance to McKinley Avenue has been modified.
Starting in May, a section of McKinley — from Petty and Neely Avenues to Bethel Avenues — was closed to the public in order for a traffic circle to be constructed.
The circle, which is now complete, will require motorists to slow down before continuing on the main drag of campus, said Jim Lowe, associate vice president for facilities planning and management.
“A circle is a little bit different from a roundabout in that the approaches are more of a 90 degree angle, slowing or almost stopping traffic,” Lowe said. “We want that because up in this area, we will have an abundance of students who will ebb and flow across.”
The circle, in theory, should slow drivers down to the campus speed limit of 20 mph, Lowe said.
The previous bus pullout and north bus shelter will be replaced with a new pull out just outside the traffic circle in a space that was previously part of the C1 commuter lot.
“So we’re carving that out because the bus shelter and the northwest bus pullout will be moved into that area,” Lowe said. “What that does for us is it creates about 3 acres of land for us, which allows us to build what we’re calling Residence Hall Number One.”
As part of the completion of the Campus Master Plan, two more residence halls — currently named Residence Hall Number One and Residence Hall Number Two — will be built around the traffic circle in order to help replace bed spaces from the demolition of LaFollette Complex.
Lowe said the university plans to break ground on Residence Hall Number One and the dining facility that will replace the facilities in LaFollette Complex within the next few months.
“Breaking ground this year it will create another 550 bed spaces by 2020 when Residence Hall Number One is complete,” Lowe said. “We then plan to complete Residence Hall Number Two by 2021 and then demolish the rest of LaFollette.”
After the complete demolition of LaFollette, what is currently the R2 parking lot will be turned into a green space for students who live in the northern residential area. Parking from this area and the space taken for the creation of the traffic circle will be absorbed into the parking lot by Carmichael Hall and Johnson Halls West.
“We have a plan to offset any small amount of parking that is lost here with this location,” Lowe said.
Additionally, Lowe said the university recently acquired additional spots near the baseball and softball complexes and the Administration Building, which can help accommodate for the parking loss.
Contact Brynn Mechem with comments at bamechem@bsu.edu or on Twitter @BrynnMechem.
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