Construction to begin in
summer
By Heather Mangold
City
Editor
Students staying on campus for the summer should
expect some obstacles when traveling through campus.
A project to improve road conditions in West Lafayette
will begin in May after Purdue's regular school session lets out, and
will extend until early August.
The project will cost close to $1.2 million.
Doc Ernst, vice president of operations at Milestone
Contractors of Lafayette, said, the construction will begin on State
Road 26 near the Triple XXX Restaurant and on to McCormick Road. The
company will work to pave, patch and widen roads in addition to replacing
som e curbs. McCormick Road will be paved from State Road 26 to Cherry
Lane as well. Some of Cherry Lane will be worked on throughout the summer
months as contractors pave it from McCormick up to Northwestern Avenue.
West Lafayette Mayor Sonya Margerum welcomes the
change.
"It will be nice to have the resurfacing done,"
said Margerum. "It's especially good that it is being done while students
are gone for the summer."
Even though some construction is being delayed
until summer months when campus is not as busy, projects to relieve
the traffic of State Street are already under way.
US 231 follows a route that allows drivers to travel
through downtown Lafayette along Fourth Street and over Harrison Bridge
today. With the new route being constructed by Walsh Construction Co.,
a new route will allow drivers to travel across the Wabash River on
a new bridge, south of the city. The route would travel along South
River Road and North River Road through the West Lafayette area.
While this construction may cause hectic driving
arrangements for businesses in the Levee, a spokesperson from Panera
Bread Company is not worried.
Alex Brock, an assistant manager of the store,
said, "We're still pretty busy even with the construction going on now.
If people have eaten here before, they will continue to eat here."
Brock said that if anything worries the store about
its sales, it is the decreasing student population that comes along
with the summer season.
Margerum said that there are advantages to the
new leg of 231.
"It will look a lot better than if it were left
the way it was and it will be more easy to move from one segment of
the city to another," she said.
|
