Campus Drive
After major construction and road renovations, Campus Drive will transform into a one-way road as the state’s transportation department begins constructing a new light rail line next year.
Starting in the summer of 2015, the state’s transit administration will start building train stations and rails for the Purple Line, a light rail line that will stretch across Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and connect to the Green, Orange and Red Metro lines, Purple Line Media Relations Director Paulette Austrich said.
The project has been in the works for more than a decade and will soon be moving forward. By its scheduled completion in 2020, the Purple Line, estimated to cost $2.37 billion according to a federal report, will feature stops near Stamp Student Union, the College Park Metro Station and the planned East Campus development.
Campus Drive will remain open to traffic during construction, Austrich said, but will transition to three lanes: one inside lane for cars and two outer lanes for buses and light rail trains going both directions. The middle lane will allow cars to drive uphill only, going from the ‘M’ traffic circle to Union Lane, left of Stamp.
“[The middle] lane will generally be westbound, except during special events when the University Police may choose to reverse the direction (for example after football games when people are leaving campus),” according to a 2013 Q-and-A document on the Purple Line’s official website.
To make room for the train, the Campus Drive bike lane will be removed and a separate bike facility will be built. To ensure the road is pedestrian-friendly, the Maryland Transit Administration will add three marked crosswalks across the rails. Parking Lot C1, near the Mitchell Building, will also be removed.
University departments are just starting to be informed about the renovations. Department of Transportation Services Director David Allen said the department does not have enough information to know what changes it will have to make to its services.
“Certainly any bus that goes down the hill towards Route 1 will have to be changed or rerouted,” Allen said. “We’re in the process of determining all of that.”
Despite the road change, Allen said DOTS plans to keep the bus stop near Stamp open and work with University Police to direct buses in the evenings, especially around the south side of the campus.
Officials from the University Health Center, which relies on easy access to Campus Drive to quickly bring injured and sick people to the building, said they did not know any details about the changes but were confident they could work around the closing.
“However, our understanding is that emergency vehicles will continue to have access to Campus Drive to reach the [Health Center],” Health Promotion Assistant Director Hope McPhatter wrote in an email.
Facilities Management officials who are helping plan the road closure declined to comment and said they would release more details next week.
Sophomore government and politics major Sam Wallace said he expects resistance from students, at least for the first few months of the closure.
“Over time, the changes to campus will be old hat to all of us. As new students come in year after year, they won’t have the experience of what campus was before,” Wallace said. “We’re all fairly used to construction projects around campus, and this won’t be any different.”
Sophomore economics and government and politics major Julio Cerón said the Campus Drive closure will affect him and his fellow commuters most directly.
“For the most part, I think it will be met with frustration, at least during the initial stage of the closure,” Cerón said. “Many students will have to find another, possibly inconvenient, way to get to where they want.”
Residence Hall Association President Omer Kaufman said he thinks the Purple Line ultimately will have a positive effect on the campus community. Greater access to public transportation could cut down on vehicle traffic, which is in line with this university’s sustainability efforts, he said, and might improve conditions for pedestrians around the campus.
“The biggest challenge will be adapting,” Kaufman said. “It might be difficult for people to envision campus without a Campus Drive that goes both ways, but hopefully people will get used to it.”
