Students and faculty gathered around the graphs and diagrams that stood in the College of Design atrium and, later, in the Sukup Hall atrium Wednesday afternoon to hear plans for the reconstruction of Bissell Road.

Those who attended the open house event left sticky notes across the colorful posters conveying comments, concerns and suggestions for the changing face of Iowa State’s western corridor. 

2018 will be a big year for construction at Iowa State. The development of a new Student Innovation Center will present issues with replacing utilities underneath Bissell Road. In addition, the Union Drive corridor is also slated to be remodeled. 

Bissell Road, which holds campus gems Howe Hall, Beyer Hall and the Design College, will have to be torn up, providing the Facilities Planning and Management Office with an opportunity to fix long-standing problems and remodel the space to better fit the pedestrian-friendly atmosphere of Central Campus.

Still in early development, the reimagined road will most likely feature access control at the northern and southern most parts of Bissell. A spot just north of Beyer Hall also will be considered. It could also feature more pedestrian-friendly zones, a bike lane, a shared road and an area for food trucks. 

“What we’re going to do next is take all these ideas, all the feedback we get, and start to develop some concepts on what the roadway could look like,” Craig Erickson, a leader at Shive-Hattery Architecture and Engineering, said. “It’s really about the pedestrian environment.”

The preliminary design broke the road into different zones, each bearing different uses. During the open house, attendees were presented with diagrams and character images detailing possible concepts for the road.

Angie Solberg, landscape architect with Facilities Planning and Management, said the design should be finalized by April, with construction slated to start April 2018. 

The construction will be broken up into two phases. The first will begin near Osborn Drive and stretch to Hoover or Howe Hall. The next will complete the southern half of Bissell Road. 

But traffic and accessibility during construction comes as an obvious worry to some students. Heather Hoefling, senior in agricultural engineering, worries about the implication of such a major project while the spring semester is still in session.

“I know they say April to August, so the majority of the time students aren’t here, but for part of it, students are going to be here,” Hoefling said. “I’m just kind of curious what they come up with on how to route buses and pedestrians when all this heavy traffic is going on.”

But for Derick Whited, senior in mechanical engineering, the university’s record of balancing active construction and student accessibility speaks for itself.

“They’ve done a pretty good job in the past of planning projects around student movement, so I don’t see a reason to be concerned about that,” Whited said.

Whited also expressed approval over suggested access control, although parking remains one of his top concerns. 

“I think [access control] is definitely needed,” he said. “There’s too much vehicular traffic and pedestrian traffic at the same time. Limiting access to the road is definitely a good idea.” 

Those involved with the reconstruction hope that the new Bissell Road will provide a safer experience for Iowa State students and cut down on unnecessary vehicular traffic in high pedestrian areas. They also hope to shape the road’s design using student input. 

“There’s generally very good support for controlling access and improving pedestrian safety,” Erickson said. “Some are things we’ve heard are: ‘If this does get access controlled, what are the impacts of that? Where does the traffic go? Where does drop-off traffic go?’ … Those are all issues that will be worked through. We don’t have all those answers today because we’re still early in the process.”

Erickson and Solberg said the feedback they have received so far has been generally positive. Students are excited about new improvements and opportunities for the area.

Joe Schaefer, senior lecturer in aerospace engineering, said the removal of unnecessary traffic and the addition of a more pedestrian-friendly road could help prevent “a tragedy waiting to happen.”

“I think they’re addressing the major problems [regarding] the transportation that will occur with the new building here and some problems that exist now,” Schaefer said.

Students interested in providing their own feedback and suggestions should contact Facility Planning and Management sooner rather than later, Solberg said, as plans will need to be finalized within the next few weeks.