Phase 2 of the Maple Street road construction has started near the University of Arkansas campus. The east-west road is blocked off on Leverett Avenue on the east and Garland Avenue on the west. Phase 1 of the project occurred last summer and stretched from Leverett Avenue to Gregg Avenue. It improved the road surface and created a separated sidewalk to provide safer travel for pedestrians and people using active transportation.
Drew Watsky is the communications manager for facilities management with the UofA. He says he likes to think of this as the Maple Street Improvement Project.
“Because it's– we want — as part of that federal grant, we want this to be a safe street, not only for our vehicles, but also for our pedestrians and those using active transportation like bicycles. Because it's such a core street on campus and just in the city of Fayetteville. And so we want to make sure that, since we're linking it up to the Razorback Greenway, that it's an easy to use road for all who need it."
The final graduation ceremony on campus was Saturday. And by Monday the road was blocked off, and diggers were already digging. Watsky says for people who need to travel through this part of Fayetteville, there are marked detours.
"We've been telling people to use Cleveland Street as a detour route because that's just the easiest main road to get to. A couple crosswalks on Maple Street will not be available over the summer, but there are some on the east and west side of the construction that will remain open. So it just might require a little bit more walking to get to a crosswalk to be able to cross."
Razorback Transit will also see a slight route change due to the construction. Watsky says the messaging might look a little different on this project for residents of Fayetteville than it does for current and prospective students, but the end goal is still the same.
"People who usually take that road will notice a difference when they're driving on it to say, this is a smoother ride. And I think we all can kind of get on board with encouraging other modes of transportation. Right. It's going to help reduce the carbon footprint. It's going to promote more active lifestyle and transportation. So I think that's why there was so much buy-in from all these different groups is, unanimously, this project is going to benefit both the campus and the city."
Road work is scheduled to be complete by early August, with an expectation that work on the sidewalk and retaining wall will go into the semester similar to phase 1.
Drew Watsky joined me yesterday in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio Two.
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