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By Dateline staff

Pedestrians and bicyclists are getting more of the campus to themselves — that is, streets where most cars and trucks are banned.

This safety zone with restricted auto access is called the “campus core,” where foot and bike traffic is greatest.

The core is being expanded along Hutchison Drive, west of California Avenue. Significant construction is planned during the upcoming holiday break; the street will remain open, but traffic controls — and flaggers — will be in place, according to Scott Arntzen, a senior project manager with Design and Construction Management.

Gates block most traffic at the campus's north, east and west entries; maintenance and emergency vehicles, delivery trucks and Unitrans buses are among the exceptions.

Now the west gate on Hutchison is being pushed back from the Silo (at California Avenue) to midway between Bioletti Way and Kleiber Hall Drive.

The gate will keep most traffic off an additional 400 yards of Hutchison Drive where foot and bike traffic has grown by leaps and bounds throughtout the last several years.

The influx is attributable to the development of the Life Sciences District (including the Life Sciences Building, and the Science Lab building and lecture hall), as well as the Unitrans terminal across from the Silo.

When entering the campus on Hutchison, drivers will still have the following options before reaching the new gate:

• Turn left at Dairy Road to enter the west entry parking garage.
• Turn right on Dairy Road.
• Turn left on Kleiber Hall Drive, leading to police and fire headquarters, the Botanical Conservatory, and the back of Briggs, Storer and Hutchison halls.
• Turn right to enter parking Lot 41, which connects with Lot 40.

If drivers have made a mistake — perhaps they thought they could drive through the campus — they can turn around by entering Lot 41 and following a new, half-circle route back to Hutchison Drive. This will be a big improvement over the Silo gate, where drivers must make three-point turns or go through the bus terminal to go back out Hutchison.

The turnaround is but one addition that this project will bring to Lot 41. The other is a visitor kiosk — one that may eventually replace the information booth at the north entry on Howard Way at the Memorial Union bus terminal.

The contractor has started work in Lot 41 and is waiting for winter break before building the concrete island for the inbound and outbound gates, and the barriers that will separate the car and bike lanes.

The inbound gate can be activated a couple of ways: by radio-frequency devices in authorized vehicles (or RF cards), by signal from the kiosk, or by special pass codes. Keypads will be placed at sedan level and truck level.

The gates are not due to go into operation until March — after sufficient notice to the campus community, Arntzen said.

Western Engineering Contractors Inc. of Loomis (Placer County) is doing the Hutchison Drive gate project for $653,300 — the lowest bid from among four that came in. Western Engineering also won the bidding for the “new” Old Davis Road and accompanying arboretum improvements, and the Dairy Road Intramural Field improvement project (artificial turf).