It curves and dips through a small grove of trees, and is so narrow in this particular spot that two buses cannot go through at the same time. The pavement is cracked and has potholes and ruts in many locations. Bicycle parking spills into the street. The sidewalk in some sections is bumpy asphalt.

Think you are in the far reaches of the 5,300-acre UC Davis? Guess again. This street is a major thoroughfare for bicycles and buses, and people on foot, in the heart of the campus.

It’s Hutchison Drive, and it’s getting a makeover; construction is scheduled to start as early as winter quarter and end before the fall quarter of 2013. The total cost is estimated at $3.7 million, of which federal and state grant money is covering nearly $1.5 million.

The grant is earmarked for “traffic enhancement” — making roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, and beautifying the streetscape at the same time. Here are some highlights from this portion of the project:

• The narrow curve through the trees will be widened and straightened — though not completely — and the dip filled in.
• A bike parking lot on the east side of the former Chem 194 will replace bike parking in the street. (Chem 194 is now Peter A. Rock Hall; see separate story.)
• The sidewalks between the Student Community Center and Shields Library will be widened and pushed back from the street, with landscaped buffers to separate pedestrians from buses and bicyclists. The asphalt sidewalks will be no more.
• Curved seating walls will go on both sides of Hutchison Drive in front of the Student Community Center and Rock Hall.

UC Davis is putting in a little more than $2.2 million, mostly for work that the university is piggybacking onto the grant-funded project. The extra work includes deferred maintenance (rebuilding about 1,250 feet of Hutchison Drive and putting in a larger pipeline for storm drainage), and building a passenger drop-off zone and car turnaround in the vicinity of the planned Music Instruction and Recital Building.

“One contractor can do both projects at once, at less cost,” said Jason Magness, a senior project manager with the campus’s Design and Construction Management.

UC Davis’ share of costs also covers a matching requirement for the traffic enhancement grant, and the planning and design, environmental and archaeological work, inspection, project management and grant administration for both the grant-funded construction and the UC Davis add-ons.

New crosswalks: Wider and raised

The entire work zone runs about 1,600 feet between California Avenue on the west and Sproul Hall on the east, connecting the Silo and Shields Library, and going past Everson Hall and Olson Hall; the art, theater and music buildings; as well as the newly renamed Rock Hall and the Student Community Center.

New crosswalks — wider and raised — are planned in two places:

• At the north end of the Mrak Mall, where it connects with the sidewalk in front of Shields Library.
• Between the arts district on the south side of Hutchison Drive and Olson Hall on the north side.

Each crosswalk will be level with its connecting paths; i.e., no curbs to step down from or to step up to. Instead, the street will ramp up to the level of each crosswalk and then ramp down.

The new bicycle parking lot at the old Chem 194 will have racks for (appropriately) 194 bikes. The lot will go between the lecture hall and Everson Hall, where students can maneuver and lock and unlock their bicycles without having to stand in the street.

Library bike path to be moved

Bike riders are in for another change in front of Shields Library. Under the existing setup, the bike path and sidewalk are side by side, and bicyclists and pedestrians practically “fight” with each other at Hutchison.

The improvement project pushes the southern half of the bike path to the west, providing plenty of distance from the new, raised crosswalk.

Pedestrians, then, should have an uninterrupted path from the Mrak Mall, across the new crosswalk, to the front of the library, and vice versa.

Continuing east, the next major change along Hutchison will be at the curved section through the trees, in front of the Art Building, the Music Building and Wright Hall (home of Main Theatre).

Magness said 10 trees — pines and Chinese Pistache — will be removed along the south side of Hutchison, to accommodate the street widening. A cork oak and other trees on the north side will not be disturbed.

The road will have a gentler curve than what exists today, offering better safety while keeping some of the street’s character, said Matt Dulcich, assistant director of environmental planning in the office of Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability.

The passenger drop-off zone and car turnaround will go behind Olson Hall, across the street from the old steam plant that will be razed to make way for the Music Instruction and Recital Building.

During music events that are open to the public, the traffic gate on Hutchison will be opened — to allow drivers to get to the drop-off zone. A new gate will be installed just west of the drop-off zone to keep cars from going farther.

Reach Dateline UC Davis Editor Dave Jones at (530) 752-6556 or dljones@ucdavis.edu.

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