Pedestrians urged to follow safe routes near Education Building

Campus construction officials are urging pedestrians to heed “sidewalk closed” signs along the north side of the Education Building as construction begins there.

“It really is a dangerous situation, because pedestrians coming up or down the hill are ignoring posted signs and fencing designed to encourage their safe passage of Bascom Hill,” says Angela Pakes Ahlman, project manager for the building’s renovation.

“Instead, students, faculty and staff are disobeying obvious warnings by walking in the street near the hairpin turn on Observatory Drive, and they often are not visible to motorists,” she adds.

Signs at the top of Bascom Hill and in front of Radio Hall direct pedestrians to take a safer route, using the main sidewalks on Bascom Hill.

“We’ve taken all sorts of measures to direct people to safer routes — we’ve posted signs, erected fences and all of us on the project have taken turns going there to try to shoo people away and warn them of the dangers,” she says. “We’re concerned someone will be hit by a car or bus.”

The signs were posted to eliminate conflicts between construction activity and pedestrians during the $34 million construction project, which is expected to take about 18 months to complete.