The construction of the new dormitories on the University of Wyoming campus has led to several complications arising.
The new dorms, which seek to “create an active and vibrant student life neighborhood,” will provide 950 beds and 850 seats in a new and unique combination of housing and dining, according to UW’s webpage on the planning and construction of the new building. It also posits that the new dorm building was strategically placed within the historic campus core hoping to tackle concerns of student safety in needing to cross 15th Street. As a consequence to the construction, however, the roads along 15th between Lewis Street and Ivison Avenue have been closed, posing a nuisance to many drivers. Particularly affected were the parents of children attending the Lab School, who used the road to facilitate the drop-off and pick-up. Others worried about the closure’s implications as an obstacle for emergency services attempting to navigate campus. Rumors soon quickly began to spread regarding the supposedly-permanent closure of these roads.
But it appears that this will not be the case.
In an interview, Michael Samp, Associate Vice President of Campus Operations for the University, addressed these concerns. Explaining the reason behind the closure of 15th Street, Samp stated, “The 15th Street corridor was closed initially for the support of the UW residence hall project. UW worked in conjunction with the city of Laramie to have that corridor designed, [alongside] some utility upgrades, to maximize pedestrian safety by the utilization of traffic-calming measures throughout that entire corridor.” He then added, “At this point, it’s too early to tell how those measures are going to play out, because the entire street corridor has not been opened. In addition to what is currently installed with the wider crosswalks and the center median, there will be a HAWK signal—essentially an augmented pedestrian crossing signal— installed at 15th and Sorority Row. That will certainly increase the safety levels for our pedestrians, particularly in the Fraternity and Sorority Row areas, as well as meet campus as they cross 15th to get onto main campus.” When asked about parental concerns regarding drop-off and pick-up for Lab School students, Samp clarified that this year will be the last year the UW Lab School will be on campus. “[It] will not be an issue this coming academic year,” he said.
Regarding the chances of the closed road’s potential obstruction to emergency service responders, Samp seemed relatively unworried on the matter, stating, “All of the local emergency responders—law enforcement to EMS to fire—have been in the planning process, and have been made aware as closures of 15th start as construction progresses, and they will continue to be involved.”
Also interviewed for his insight was Chief of Police of the Laramie Police Department, Brian Browne. Speaking on the possibility of the current road closures impeding emergency services, he stated, “We’re used to construction in Laramie. It seems like that because of the weather, usually our construction season is pretty short – about four months. So we’re used to dealing with road closures. We use other major arteries in our city to get to where we need to be, and our officers are always made aware of all the road closures as they happen.” He later added, “Any time a road’s closed, it causes us to alter the way that we do business and respond…We have officers in slightly different areas of the city, including the north section of the city, and patrol that area for the majority of their shift. So typically, we’ll have an officer around [15th Street] anyways. Where the delay could happen is if we’re waiting for a second unit or perhaps a fire response, depending on where the initial fire unit or second fire unit is at.”
Chief Browne also provided insight on the working relationship held between LPD and JE Dunn, the contractors of the new dorms. “Sometimes we’re working with [them]. They try to predict exactly what their availability is, whether or not they’re able to beat deadlines… there’s a variety of reasons that go into that. I can tell you that what I’ve seen with the university’s projects is that they’ve done a great job notifying the city on when things are gonna take longer, and sometimes they’re finished faster. It just really depends on the scale of the project, and what type of issues they might run into during construction.”
At the end of the interview, Chief Browne made his stance on the closure of 15th Street known, saying, “I won’t say that it doesn’t present any obstacle – it is an obstacle. But to be honest with you, we’re presented with obstacles every day in our line of work. Our officers have developed phenomenal habits of building around those obstacles and making sure they’re able to accomplish their goals and our mission of serving our community to the best of our ability. And this is just another one of those scenarios. We’ll work around that to make sure we’re providing the members of our community the best service possible in creating a safe environment for everybody in Laramie.”
With the construction of the new dorms soon approaching its end, its campus impacts will soon be a thing of the past. 15th Street, it appears, will return with several changes, each of which guaranteed to extinguish concerns of student safety when crossing its roads. While Samp expressed uncertainty in how effective these safety measures will be, one thing is certain – they can only be better than a complete road closure.
