Bids due for safety project at U of M

Crossing at Central

Bidding for the pedestrian safety project along Central Avenue at the University of Memphis closes Friday.

The city of Memphis is overseeing construction.

The submitted bids will be reviewed, and once a bid has been selected, the Memphis City Council will have to approve it. It will be around two months before a contract is signed, said John Cameron, director of the Engineering Division and city engineer.

“We’ll choose whoever has the lowest, best bid,” Cameron said.

Features of the Central Avenue Safety Project include fencing along the parking lot on five-lane Central, wider sidewalks

and a median, beginning at the intersection of Zach Curlin and ending just before Patterson Street.

The median is intended to slow down cars; the fencing will funnel pedestrians to the larger crosswalk on Central.

Brad Davis, deputy director of engineering, said the decision not to add more crosswalks is based on a traffic regulation prohibiting more than one crosswalk within 400 feet of an intersection.

The goal of the Central Avenue Safety Project is to reduce pedestrian accidents at that trouble spot, according to Tony Poteet, assistant vice president of campus planning and design at the U of M. Since 1995, at least two students have been killed and another critically injured while trying to cross Central.

In April, a student was struck by a car as he was walking through the Central Avenue crosswalk. He wasn’t seriously injured.

The city has invested approximately $1.2 million into the project, which will cost about $3.3 million total.

Davis said the city, state and university each contributed roughly a third of the funding.

“The city has already invested its part,” Davis said. “We’ve already done some drainage improvements and paid for design costs.”

During construction, one lane will remain open in each direction, and the university expects minimal impact on parking in the Central lot.

Construction is anticipated to begin in the fall and will take approximately 12 to 15 months to complete.