Project addresses traffic flow at College Lane Elementary
Andy Brosig/News-Sun
It’s all about timing, they say. And a change in the timing of a project to improve traffic flow at College Lane Elementary means different parts of the work will be done at different times.
Doug Young, assistant superintendent for operations for Hobbs Municipal Schools, explained the changes to the district board of education during its meeting July 16. Initial plans were to called for rebuilding the parking lot in front of the school to include two lanes for parents to drop off and pickup students along with parking, he said.
That’s still the plan, but now the parking lot won’t be finished as soon as first thought, Young told the News-Sun on Wednesday. Material delays were one factor in moving work on the project, contracted to Ramirez and Sons of Hobbs, to other paving work at the school.
“There are major renovations to the front parking lot” in the plans, Young said. “It’s a whole new, two-lane delivery system along with parking. Some major adjustments need to be made.”
There was a delay in concrete deliveries with a subcontractor to construct curbs and gutters, he said. There were also some concerns about preparing the ground under the front parking.
The idea behind the project is getting traffic at the start and, particularly, at the end of the school day off College Lane, Young said. While he wasn’t aware of any serious accidents in the area in the past, Young did say the project will increase both safety and efficiency.
The project has shifted to working on a larger, primarily faculty parking lot on the west side of the school along with construction of two new roads on both the east and the west to give traffic more places to go. The east side road will feed into the new front parking lot, doing away with long lines of cars along College Lane at the end of the day.
“Ramirez and Sons don’t think they can get the front parking lot done before school starts,” Young told the board earlier this month. Construction now will “focus on the turnaround and come back, then tie into the existing parking lot for the start of school. As soon as we dismiss school in May we’ll hit the front parking lot. The good news is we’ll get traffic off College Lane probably in September, instead of January.”
The City of Hobbs is helping to fund portions of the project, particularly building the new roads, Young said. Eventually, there are plans in the works to widen College Lane and construct a turning lane accessing the new road on the east of the school to further facilitate better traffic flow.
“Basically, what we’ve been told is, there will be a three-lane road, one-lane eastbound, one-lane westbound and a turning lane,” Young said Wednesday. “We want to get traffic off College Lane and be able to let cars line up in a more safe environment, rather than on the shoulder of the street.”
The projected cost of the project is $2.4 million, Young told the News-Sun in June. Of that, the city will chip in some $350,000 to help offset the new road construction, said Anthony Henry, acting city engineer.
“Part of the goal of the project Doug (Young) and his team are working on is to get traffic off that road,” Henry said. “We like to keep the road safe for all the drivers, pedestrian and parents.
“If we can get school traffic off the main road and onto side roads that would be the major goal. I think that will be accomplished when the school project is done.”
From the city’s point of view, adding the turning lane is part of a larger project slated for the future to widen all of College Lane to create an east-west corridor on the north side of town. With current and future development in the area, providing a route for traffic between Lovington Highway on the west and Grimes and Del Norte streets in central and eastern parts of town makes sense, Henry said.
“From a transportation aspect we don’t have a lot of east-west corridors in Hobbs,” he said. “We’re seeing a lot of development out there (and) anticipating that’s going to be a large road.”
Widening plans have only recently entered the design and development stage, Henry said. Realistically, he doesn’t expect construction could begin until 2026. Lea County is also on board as a “major funding” source for the project, he said.
“But it’s a great project,” Henry said. “It’s for the future planning and growth of Hobbs.”
The current phases of the project — the large parking lot on the west and the new roads on each side of the school — should be completed by late September or early October, Young said. Those timelines are somewhat weather dependent.
“It’s such a short timeline,” Young said. “But it actually turns out better being able to get people off the street. We’re actually moving ahead faster than we anticipated to be able to get people off College Lane.”
