East Mall Construction Project: Traffic Impacts & Bus Stop Relocation
Earlier this month, Planning, Design and Construction kicked off the Campus Infrastructure project, which will help mitigate stormwater flooding in University buildings south of the Mall. Numerous holding tanks will be buried beneath the lawn on the east side of the Mall to retain and reduce the amount of water in Cherry Avenue during rainstorms.
Sundt Construction began the project on March 28 by excavating the Mall lawn. The next phase will be to install the holding tanks over the summer, followed by the replacement of the turf by early fall. During this time, the following travel restrictions and traffic impacts are expected.
Pedestrians, Vehicles & Bicycles
The east Mall lawn will be fenced and closed to pedestrians. Cherry Avenue will remain open. University Boulevard will remain open with narrower lanes for vehicles. Please share the roadway with bicycles. Temporary overnight lane restrictions on Cherry and University will be required occasionally – separate construction notices will be provided when dates are determined.
Sun Tran Bus Stop
The transit hub (bus stop) near Meinel Optical Sciences will be closed to avoid congestion with parked buses. The temporary bus stops will be in place until the start of the fall semester in August.
The Route 15 bust stop has been temporarily relocated to the corner of Campbell Avenue and Third Street. Express routes 102 and 103 have been relocated to the north curb on Second Street at Cherry Avenue.
NEW STOP LOCATION: Effective Monday, April 18, the campus Sun Tran bus stop for Route 15 will be relocated to Cherry Avenue until the transit hub reopens. The northbound Route 15 stop will be on the east curb near Cherry Avenue and Hawthorne Street, near Flandrau. The southbound Route 15 stop will be on the west curb at Cherry Avenue Hawthorne Street, just south of Steward Observatory.
Cat Tran
The Cat Tran Red route stop at Meinel Optical Sciences has been temporarily moved. Riders can board at Fourth Street and Cherry and at the Steward Observatory east stop. The Red route will be redirected to travel north on Cherry to Second Street and east on Second Street to Campbell Avenue to resume the route back to Lot 9008. All other stops for this route will not be affected. Red route spring services end May 20 and will resume Aug. 15.
A map with more details can be found on the Parking & Transportation Services website.
If you have questions about the project, please contact Melissa Dryden, Planning, Design and Construction, at mdryden@arizona.edu. For questions about the traffic impacts, please contact Alex Chavez at aschavez@arizona.edu.