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College Drive scheduled for repaving

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College Drive scheduled for repaving

NIC’s aged and damaged College Drive is to be repaved this year, and made safer.

“That road is awful and it needs to be fixed,” Samantha Ahrndt, 21, General Studies, Spokane Valley, said. “It is hard to avoid all of the potholes.”

Pedestrians also face challenges walking down the sidewalks lining College Drive because they are also in poor condition.

College Drive runs through the middle of campus and it is a difficult road to avoid, despite its dire state. It is often necessary to use while getting around campus and it is seen by most as unavoidable.

“It definitely needs repaved. It’s not any fun to ride my longboard down,” Ahrndt said.

After the conclusion of the 2014 Spring semester, NIC officials plan to begin the project of repaving College Drive as well as adding some additional safety features.

Not only will the road be torn up and repaved but crosswalks, horizontal parking spots, bike lanes, drop off zones, and handicap accessibility will be added.

Garry Stark, assistant director of facilities operations, said he hopes the project will be complet-ed by July 1 and in time for the Fourth of July celebrations in Coeur d’Alene.

NIC officials to recycle the old pavement that is used on College Drive to save money. The old road will be ground up into gravel that will be used for the new roadway.

One of the major differences students will see on College Drive will be vertical parking instead of the horizontal spots that line the street.

“Everyone likes the idea of the straight in parking over the horizontal parking, it will make things easier,” Stark said.

Stark, who is also on the parking commission for the city of Coeur d’Alene, watched a presentation done by a local officer about improving bicycle safety and he decided to adopt similar changes at NIC.

College Drive will be made more accessible for bikers by incorporating two new bike lanes that will lead to the Student Union Building.

Along with this addition Stark, said he hopes to add more bike racks around campus, especially in areas that aren’t safe to be used as parking spots. The addition of more bike racks will likely be added to areas around crosswalks to help improve the visibility for both pedestrians and motorists.

“Bike racks are transparent, you can see through them. With cars you can’t,” Stark said.

College Drive was previously a city street and it was never on the list of the city’s top priorities to be repaved, Stark said. NIC officials wanted to repaved it seven to eight years ago but the state didn’t want to fund it.

“Since then the street has been vacated to the college. Now it is ours and that is why the state is fixing it for us,” Stark said.

During this project NIC officials plan to maintain a path, or a certain section of the road open, so that NIC will remain accessible for students and staff.

Maintaining access to the Student Union Building and keeping the environment surrounding College Drive safe for students during the repaving process will be emphasized to the different companies bidding for this project.

The pre-bid meeting will be held on April 22, and it will take around two weeks for the contracts to be finalized for construction to begin at the commencement of the Spring 2014 semester.

“The whole thing will make it safer for the students,” Stark said.

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I am the current News Editor of The Sentinel, and in charge of creating the News section of this paper and assigning the stories covered in it.

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