Construction to alter MSU central campus traffic flows starting Sunday

Contact: Joe Farris

With renovation of historic Montgomery Hall getting under way at Mississippi State, traffic on nearby central campus streets will be re-routed starting Sunday, June 17.

The section of Darden Street between Tracy Drive and the McCool Hall parking lot will be closed and will remain closed throughout the 18-month construction project.

Darden is a one-way street handling east to west traffic from McCool Hall to Five Points Intersection. The parallel Creelman Street also is one way, handling west to east traffic from Five Points to President's Circle.

With the closing of the section of Darden nearest Montgomery Hall, the parallel section of Creelman Street from Tracy Drive to President's Circle will become two-way during the Montgomery Hall renovation. A four-way stop will be installed Sunday at the intersection of Creelman and Tracy Drive.

Starting Sunday, the left lane of Creelman from Dorman Hall near the Five Points intersection east to Tracy Drive will be used only for traffic turning left onto Tracy Drive. The right lane of Creelman from Dorman Hall to Tracy Drive will be used only by traffic proceeding through the three-way stop toward President's Circle, where motorists can turn right toward Allen Hall or left into the McCool Hall parking lot.

Motorists traveling west toward the Five Points intersection from Allen Hall or McCool Hall will take the two-way section of Creelman Street west to Tracy Drive, turn right on Tracy to Darden Street, and turn left (west) onto Darden toward Five Points.

The Tracy Drive intersection with Lee Boulevard, which has been closed in recent weeks because of another construction project, will be reopened Sunday. Lee Boulevard, however, will be closed starting Sunday between Five Points intersection and Tracy Drive and will remain closed for about four weeks during extension of the central heating and cooling system to the football stadium.

Westbound traffic ordinarily entering the Five Points intersection from Lee Boulevard will instead turn left onto Tracy Drive and then right onto Darden to proceed into the intersection.

Also starting Sunday, Walker Road in the central campus will be closed to through traffic during the four-week utility installation project. The street will be open from its east end intersection with Perry Street through most of its length in front of the Chapel of Memories, Hull Hall, and the Butler-Williams Alumni Center, but it temporarily will be a dead end street, closed at the west end near the football stadium.