Construction jams campus traffic

Back-to-school traffic and parking around UNM’s main campus can be unpredictable, but this August there will be an added complication.

Road con­struc­tion in the Yale Boulevard and Las Lomas Road area for the new Yale parking structure will restrict traffic through August 31.

The construction will affect North­bound Yale Boulevard between Lomas Boulevard and Las Lomas Road, as well as both lanes of Las Lomas Road between Yale Boulevard and Stan­ford Drive.

Parking and Transportation Services recommends that drivers find alternate routes for getting around campus. Shuttle services around campus will also be re-routed, so students should expect delays, said PATS spokesman Brian Kilburn.

“There will be access to the affected areas, but there will be no access for through traffic,” he said.

Kilburn said PATS is trying to minimize the disruption the project will cause and will have updated infor­ma­tion available on campus or online about the impacted areas and how long construction will be going on. He said infor­ma­tion on re-routed shuttles will also be avail­able at shut­tle stops around campus.

Dong Glenn, PATS operation manager, said construction will mostly consist of connecting the water lines from main campus to the new parking structure and only students attempting to enter campus southbound will experience problems.

“There will be an issue trying to use Yale to exit Las Lomas onto Lomas, but students wanting to exit campus onto Lomas can use Stanford or University instead,” Glenn said.

UNM junior Lyndsey Holland said she has already ridden on shuttles that were re-routed.

“I was on the Q-lot bus the other day, and it goes all the way out and around now before taking me to my car,” she said. “It took longer than usual, and I’m thinking of changing to the south lot shuttles just so I don’t have to deal with it.”

Holland said the construction should’ve been done earlier in the summer when it wouldn’t have affected so many students.

“It seems like it’s taking forever to get done,” Holland said. “I think if the Yale structure was for students I would be less irritated, but it’s for faculty, so we won’t even get to park there after all the construction is done.”

Go to http://pats.unm.edu/ for information about road closures and bus routes.