After years of discussion, the College is finally converting the street running between Massachusetts Row residence cluster and McNutt and Parkhurst administration buildings into a pedestrian walkway.
Associate Director of Facilities, Operations and Management John Gratiot said the College is making the road a pedestrian walkway because "it makes the area a more pedestrian-friendly zone and it visually enhances the campus."
Gratiot said there was some concern that the area was unsafe for students and other people who pass through.
Facilities, Operations and Management removed the large, overgrown shrubs that grew close to the residence halls and will replace them with a grassy area this spring. A row of Northern Bayberry hedges now runs along each side of the road.
Gratiot said the parking spaces along the road were removed, and there are three new handicapped parking spaces at both the north and south ends of McNutt Hall.
Also, two posts have been placed at both ends of the road, connected with a chain to make the road inaccessible to vehicles.
According to Gratiot, the complete effort will cost $30,000 to $35,000. Gratiot said there currently are no plans to tear up the walkway's asphalt.
There have been plans to build a pedestrian walkway for several years. Facilities Planning has contracted several master plans for landscaping over the years, the most recent one done in the late 1980s by an architectural firm.
"One of the features of the plan was the concept that they would have a pedestrian mall from Mass Row to" the Rockefeller Center for the Social Sciences, Gratiot said.
Last summer, the College took the first step toward extending the walkway. The College first attempted to prevent automobile traffic in front of Mass Row by growing the grass right to the edge of the road and put up three posts at the north end of the road.
But drivers proceeded to drive right over the middle post when they found themselves boxed in, and continued to park up on the new grass areas, Gratiot said. The middle post had been designed to be collapsible to allow vehicles to pass through during term change-over, or in the event of a fire.
Gratiot said he hopes the chain between the posts will prove more effective.
Gratiot said the new walkway does pose several problems. Deliveries to the administrative buildings will be more difficult, although Facilities, Operations and Management has already spoken with the delivery people to discuss problems and help minimize them.
The beginnings and ends of terms, when traffic on campus increases dramatically, should not pose a problem, since the chains can be taken down for those few days. Gratiot said he does not believe traffic will be an issue. Though traffic flow may increase behind Mass Row, Gratiot said he "looks at that [diversion] as positive."
There are a few handicapped students in Mass Row, and the College is discussing ways to minimize any negative effect the conversion will have on them, and it will work hard to meet special needs.