News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The final designs of a project to move Tennessee Tech more into a pedestrian friendly campus are complete.
Capital Projects and Planning Director Jim Cobb said the university hopes to bid the project before the holiday break to start construction in January.
“It’s a great improvement to the campus,” Cobb said. “We are providing green space to the core of the campus making the campus more pedestrian friendly, and it’s definitely improving the look of the campus.”
Cobb said improvements would be focused around Peach Tree Avenue, West 10th Street and Stadium Drive. Cobb said the portion of Peach Tree through campus would become a pedestrian mall closed to traffic.
“Anyone traveling on 7th Street if they were to turn up Stadium Drive or Peach Street to the campus that’s where the improvements will be made,” Cobb said. “(…) Traffic would be primarily coming in on Stadium Drive. West 10th Street will connect Stadium Drive to the parking areas that are along Peach Tree now. Those will remain.”
Cobb said the intersection of University Drive and Peach Tree would turn into a plaza area similar to Centennial Plaza. Cobb said an expansive green space would also be placed in front of the new Lab Science Building.
“It helps the look of the campus,” Cobb said. ‘We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback, and we want to carry that theme throughout the central core of the campus.”
Cobb said this project has been in the planning stage for some three years.
