Updated 11 a.m. Sept. 7: Unitrans will resume its normal schedule at 12:30 p.m. today, officials say.

Updated 9:30 a.m. Sept. 7: Officials now say the La Rue Road-Hutchison Drive intersection will reopen at 9:45 a.m. today. The reopening had been scheduled for last night, but, according to Design and Construction Management, the new pavement had not cooled enough. A partial closure is still scheduled for Saturday (Sept. 8), 6 a.m. to noon, when the Western Engineering crew will finish its work in the intersection, specifically a 12-foot section on the north end that had been left open for emergency vehicles during the initial stages of the project.

Updated 8:30 p.m. Sept. 6: Campus officials said the La Rue Road-Hutchison Drive intersection, which had been closed for repair and repaving today, will reopen tonight and will NOT be closed Friday after all. Unitrans will return to normal operations Friday, as opposed to Thursday when the campus-city transit system shut down three lines and skipped several stops because of the construction work. The early return to normalcy is possible because Western Engineering completed most of its work today and decided to finish up Saturday (Sept. 8), 6 a.m. to noon. The Saturday work will not affect Unitrans, because it does not run buses through the intersection on weekends.

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Traffic alert: The La Rue Road-Hutchison Drive intersection — the Davis campus’s west entry — will be mostly shut down this Thursday and Friday (Sept. 6 and 7) for repair and repaving. Pedestrians and bicyclists will be able to cross, and detours will be posted for auto traffic to get to the Pavilion Parking Structure and other parts of the campus.

Because of the construction, Unitrans will not run its C, D and J lines (alternative Lines B, K and G are available out of the Memorial Union Terminal) and will skip several stops: La Rue at the Activities and Recreation Center, northbound and southbound; Hutchison at Bioletti Way, westbound and eastbound; Hutchison at Extension Center Drive, eastbound; and Hutchison at Health Sciences Drive, westbound and eastbound.

Pedestrians and bicyclists: If you’re going east-west, use the crosswalk on the north side of the intersection. If you’re going north-south, use the crosswalk on the west side of the intersection.

More work is still to come in the same area:

• Hutchison Drive — Closed between the Sciences Laboratory Building and California Avenue, this Saturday (Sept. 8), for repair and repaving in the vicinity of Unitrans’ Silo Terminal. See map here. There will be no adjustment to Unitrans operations, because the campus-city transit system does not use the Silo Terminal on weekends. And there will be no restrictions on getting and and out of the Pavilion Parking Structure for the Aggies’ home-opening football game Saturday night.
• La Rue Road — Southbound lanes closed from Hutchison Drive to Garrod Drive, Monday (Sept. 10) through Nov. 2, for reconstruction. Southbound traffic will be diverted to the northbound side of the road, which will be converted to two-way traffic. (Construction this summer is limited to the southbound lanes.)

Intersection closure

Construction at the La Rue Road-Hutchison Drive intersection is scheduled from 5 a.m. Thursday to noon Friday. We say the intersection will be “mostly” closed, because if you’re driving east on Hutchison, you will be able to turn right onto La Rue. Once you’re going south on La Rue, you can access the south part of the campus or turn left on Dairy Road to reach the Pavilion Parking Structure.

Otherwise, your best bet is to avoid the area or follow one of the detours (see map here):

• Driving in on Hutchison from the west (off Highway 113) and wanting to go to the north part of campus — Follow Extension Center Drive, Orchard Park Drive and Orchard Road back to La Rue south of Russell Boulevard.
• Driving in on La Rue from the south — If you want to go to the Pavilion Parking Structure, turn right on Dairy Road. If you want to go to the north part of campus, follow Garrod Drive and Health Sciences Drive around the Health Sciences District and Aggie Stadium to reach Hutchison. Then take Extension Center Drive, Orchard Park Drive and Orchard Road back to La Rue south of Russell Boulevard.

Summer road work

All of the road work on the west side of campus is part of a $1.7 million contract with Western Engineering Inc. of Loomis. The contractor has already completed pavement repairs in Parking Lot 47 along La Rue Road east of the Tercero Residence Area.

While working on La Rue’s southbound lanes, the contractor also is tasked with rebuilding the walkway alongside La Rue southwest of Aggie Stadium and removing parts of the La Rue median at the Hutchison Drive and Garrod Drive intersections, providing extra room for improved traffic flow.

The contract also includes safety improvements on Hutchison west of La Rue. They include extending the median to block left turns at Extension Center Drive (which provides access to the Rec Pool) — in other words, Extension Center Drive will become right-turn-in and right-turn-out only. Bike lanes will be painted green.

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