by Matthew Dolbey, Campus Editor
Beginning Monday, Nov. 24, Charter Street between Linden and University Avenue will be closed to through traffic. Pedestrians will be able to travel on the west side of the street on eight-foot-wide temporary board sidewalks provided by the contractor, Michels.
Traffic on University Avenue and Linden is not likely to be affected, though pedestrian travel on the north sidewalk of University Avenue will likely be disrupted in upcoming months due to work updating the utility infrastructure beneath the sidewalk.
The construction on Charter Street will limit car traffic to vehicles traveling southbound during non-construction time, and flag persons will allow maintenance, deliveries, busses, construction and emergency vehicles to travel southbound during construction hours. The northbound lane will not be open until construction is finished in March 2004. The road will close again in the summer of 2004 to finish utility work.
Stephen Harman, a civil engineer at Facilities, Planning and Management at the University of Wisconsin, said the southbound lane would remain open for buses because the bus routes predominately go that way.
UW transportation services director Lance Lunsway agreed, noting that the intent is to disrupt the mass transit system as minimally as possible.
“We’re partnering with this like we do with all other projects,” Lunsway said in a phone interview. “We always want to work to maintain the bus routes.”
Recommended detours for the duration of the project suggest that motorists — including bicyclists and moped operators — traveling north should turn on University Avenue and use Babcock Avenue. Southbound motorists are suggested to use the road at Henry Mall in front of Agriculture Hall or Park Street to exit campus.
The construction on Charter is due to two separate projects, according to Harman. An “open trench” over 12 feet wide will be dug up to put in a new water line, which will hopefully be installed before the ground gets too cold to dig.
The other project will include digging under the sidewalk of Charter, Linden and University to run conduits that will hold wires, updating electric and signal ductbank packages. This job will include digging shafts that will be up to more than 20 feet deep to be used in updating local area network and electrical wires. Harman explained that the ductbank packages will provide necessary communication upgrades between supernodes and buildings in the area.
“I think the water line will be done before it gets to cold,” Harman said. “The only thing weather is going to delay is the conduit (for the ductbank packages).” Harman added that the progress of the project is dependent on the weather.
The shafts will be used as a junction- and pull-box for the wires going through the conduit. All wires going into a building will need a temporary junction box to make the necessary connections with the utility work within the building. Also, the ductwork going through the conduit cannot go too far without another place to pull the wires through, according to Harman. The shafts will be similar to those installed at a parking lot at the southwest corner of University and Charter last year.
The completion date of the entire project is currently forecasted as November 2004.
