IUPUI to Revert Two Way Streets Back to One Way After Budget Cuts

Heads up! This article was imported from a previous version of The Campus Citizen. If you notice any issues, please let us know.

Students at IUPUI are no strangers to the near-constant construction taking place on campus. If you’ve attended IUPUI since 2015, then you’re pretty accustomed to both Michigan and New York Street, that run parallel through the heart of campus, being worked on throughout your tenure.

Split into three phases, construction began on New York street, turning it into a two-way road and has now set it’s focus on Michigan. It has been a major gripe of students and drivers who have to maneuver their way through traffic cones, construction workers, pedestrians, and the added touch of Indianapolis’ finest potholes just to fight for a parking spot on campus to go to class.

Parking1-768x576-300x225
Photo by Josephine Salyer


And if you’ve been around long enough, you may have noticed that...construction has seemed to come to a screeching halt. While New York street may be a bit more confusing to navigate for pedestrians and drivers, it was transformed without a hitch. The same can not be said for Michigan street.

“It’s obviously taken longer than we expected,” Calumet Civil Contractor representative, Brian O’Conner said. “We wanted to make this process as fast and seamless as possible to get the campus back to normal, and running smoothly with the addition of more functional two way streets.”

But after severe budget cuts to the project by the school, Calumet claims they can not continue.

“We can’t work for free,” Dominic Toretto, a construction worker familiar with the project said. “If the money doesn’t go to the company, they don’t give it to us, and we don’t work. It’s that simple.”

This isn’t new to IUPUI either. Budget cuts and unfinished projects can be found all over the campus from the Natatorium renovations and parking lots, to buildings.

“It seems like they start things with such great ideas and then never end up finishing...Kinda like some guys I know,” Tej Parker, an IUPUI junior, said.

Because of these changes made to the project, Calumet said they have agreed to begin renovations turning the already-two way New York street back to one way, and begin demolishing the islands already in place for the two-way Michigan street. O’Conner claimed it would be to avoid harmful situations.

Upon creating the idea for two-way streets, IUPUI claimed it would benefit the campus as far as traffic flow goes, as well as pedestrian and biker safety.

Construction is expected to be finished on April Fool’s Day 2019.

Powered by SNworks Solutions by The State News
All Content © 2024 The Campus Citizen, IUPUI