Starting on April 8th, Cherry St. through Ferst Dr. up to the Transit Hub will be closed down for steam line replacement and streetscaping projects. These construction projects will keep the streets closed through at least Oct. 1st with the possibility to go until the end of that month which will also cause vehicles including Stingers to reroute around Tech Parkway until the completion of this construction.
The multi-phase project actually began in March, when the parking lot next to the bus turnaround on Ferst Dr. was closed for construction.
According to John DuConge, Senior Construction Project Manager, the Steam Line replacement portion will include underground utility work to support some of the buildings on Cherry Street like the Guggenheim Building and will continue on down to the Tech Trolley Turnaround area which will remain unaffected.
While the Streetscaping portion will include repaving sidewalks on Cherry St. and Ferst Dr. as well as planting new trees in some areas along the street and overall improving the aesthetics of the streets.
The schedule will continue on through April with Ferst Dr. being closed to vehicular traffic from the bus turnaround between the Student Center and Weber Building to the Cherry Street. There will still be limited pedestrian access on Ferst Drive during construction. Cherry Street will remain open to pedestrian traffic but will be closed to vehicular access except for construction vehicles, GT service vehicles and emergency vehicles.
Between April 28 and May 2 construction in this area will go “quiet” for exam week and will be limited to work that is considered reasonably non-disruptive to adjacent buildings with closed windows. The same will happen during exam periods during the summer semester as construction will continue on until completion in October and November.
With all of the road closures in this area, Parking and Transportation will be rerouting buses that are regularly coming through the area as well.
“In essence, they’re being shifted out to Tech Parkway. That’s the easiest way to explain it,” said David Christ, Transportations Operations Manager.
With their normal routes closed down for five or six months the Red Route, Blue Route, Green Route and Midnight Rambler will all be re-routed out to Tech Parkway with their normal directional service but new temporary stops until construction has ended.
The Red Route will continue running clockwise with three new stops at a Marta bus stop in front of the President’s Lot on North Avenue, a stop on Tech Parkway adjacent to the Weber Building and a third stop on Tech Parkway adjacent to the walkway leading to the Student Center.
The Blue route will continue in the opposite direction with only two new stops, one across the street from the walkway to the student center on Tech Parkway at State St. and the other at the Marta Bus Shelter in front of the Parking Deck next to the Alumni House on North Avenue.
The Green route will not be affected on its return route but will have a stop with the blue route at the State St. intersection on Tech Parkway.
The Midnight Rambler will reroute on to Tech Parkway as well with no stops on its route there.
While the Tech Trolleys will remain unaffected during this time period, the rest of the Transit Hub will not be operational.
PTS will be putting out signs in the near future notifying the campus community of these route changes as well as pointing out exactly where these temporary stops will be.
“We’re also working with GTPD to regulate the speed limit on Tech Parkway, because there will be more students out there so drivers need to be given a constant heads up that there will be more people using those crosswalks,” said Torise Young, Communications Officer in PTS.