Contact: Joe Farris
A major parking lot and road construction project to begin Wednesday [June 9] at Mississippi State will close portions of two major campus streets for the summer and alter traffic patterns.
Creelman Street will be closed from Stone Boulevard at the Five Points intersection to President's Circle, while Darden Avenue will be closed from Lee Boulevard to Tracy Drive, as well as the portion of Tracy Drive connecting Darden and Creelman.
The university project will create a new 110-space parking lot south of the Lloyd-Ricks Building and eliminate the portion of Darden Avenue that will be closed this summer. A "dogleg" curve in Creelman Street near its intersection with President's Circle also will be straightened as part of the project.
The project implements a portion of the Campus Master Plan adopted last year.
The portion of Lee Boulevard. between Five Points and the conjunction of Lee and Darden will now handle two-way traffic. In the past, that portion of the street has been west-bound only. With Creelman closed, traffic entering campus from the west on Bully Boulevard or Creelman/Russell streets will be forced to make a left or right turn at the intersection with Stone Boulevard.
Drivers may turn left and then turn right onto Lee, which has been prohibited, to travel into the central campus, or may turn right onto Stone Boulevard to travel toward the South campus.
The portion of Tracy Drive between Lee Boulevard and Darden Avenue will remain open to two-way traffic, but will dead-end at Darden.
The portion of Darden Avenue from President's Circle at Montgomery Hall west to Tracy Drive also will be open to two-way traffic, providing access to the parking lots behind Montgomery and Perry Cafeteria, but Darden will dead-end at Tracy Drive.
The staff parking lot between McCarthy Gym and President's Circle will remain open but will be accessed by a new entrance from the south. A nearby portion of the large open parking lot behind McCarthy Gym will be designated for staff parking only.
Once the project is completed, Creelman Street will be open to one-way traffic from Stone Boulevard to President's Circle.
Construction fences will surround the entire site, which will prevent north-south pedestrian traffic between Lloyd-Ricks on the north and Dorman Hall and McCarthy Gym to the south.