The City of Laramie and University of Wyoming began public meetings and comment sessions the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 3, to resolve what is to be done to “unify” the campus or create a safer and stronger continuity between campus east of 15th Street and campus west of 15th street.
“There is absolutely no way you can completely shut down the only north-south artery through 13 blocks of campus spanning east to west,” said resident at 9th Street and Ivinson Avenue, Richard Covell. “9th Street is already overloaded from Grand Avenue being closed, there’s already little if any enforcement of crosswalk safety and traffic does not obey signals or speed limits. More traffic is going to help that? Someone’s going to get seriously injured here.”
Students and residents of Laramie also attended an informational session and commentary forum at the UW Law building Wednesday at noon. Two more public comment sessions are planned. The public will be able to comment again Thursday, Oct. 5, at 12:30 p.m. in the UW Union Senate Chambers and again Saturday, Oct. 7, at 11 a.m. at the Laramie Community Recreation Center Conference Room.
There are currently four proposals posted at cityoflaramie.org. The first proposal recommends complete closure of 15th Street from Willett to Ivinson.
The Second proposal is that of an overpass spanning from near Washakie Dining Hall to the North East corner of Ivinson and 15th Street.
The third proposal is for an underpass to utilize existing tunnel access.
The fourth proposal involves adding raised pavement at specific intersections to slow vehicle traffic and indicate high volume pedestrian use. There are slight variations proposed for the full closure of 15th Street.
“People have raised concern that the campus is divided not only physically but perceivably by 15th Street,” said UW student body president, Ben Wetzel. “People voice concern about not knowing where the Wyoming Union is located or how to get there and it’s distance from the residence halls.”
The proposal and information finding period was actually initiated through the Joint Appropriations Committee of the Wyoming legislature and is not officially a project or study requested by the University of Wyoming.
“This is not an all or nothing situation either,” UW’s Vice-President for Governmental and Community Affairs, Chris Boswell, said. “There is flexibility written into this project.”
The majority of the people commenting at Wednesday’s meeting were against shutting down 15th street. Concerns ranged from altering the university’s atmosphere negatively through closures, an increase in traffic safety concerns surrounding UW and frustration with government spending practices.
“Where is any hard data? What is the basis? What are the facts about traffic safety at that corner? Or, is it perception of a divided campus? What is it?” UW law student, Allison Strube, said. “We need to identify the actual problem with certainty rather than throw money at a nebulous and undefined situation.”
No life threatening pedestrian or other accidents have occurred at the corner of 15th Street and Ivinson Avenue since a UW student was hit in 2012 by a driver under the influence.
