Editorial
Arizona Daily Wildcat
January 16, 1998

The Road Less Traveled

It's always nice to start a semester on a positive note, and this semester the university did just that. As students began moving back into the dorms on North Campus Drive, they found new and pristine paving covering a road previously reminiscent of a New York street.

Chuck Raetzman, Facilities Management assistant director for operations, said the roadway had not been repaved in his 30 years at the University of Arizona.

"That thing was breaking up to the point where any crack sealing was just a waste of money," Raetzman said. "Finally you're patching patches."

This magical transformation happened quickly and unobtrusively over winter break. One would think that all major campus construction and renovation could happen this easily and inconspicuously.

In fact, Raetzman said, the $45,000 repavement project received funding in early fiscal 1997, but was deliberately scheduled for a less obtrusive time.

"We're trying to minimize the inconvenience to the campus users," Raetzman said. "That has to be a top priority."

It seems, however, that not every plan in and around campus takes traffic and use into account before streets are torn up and buildings gutted.

Last fall, major construction wrecked East University Boulevard west of Old Main for much of the early part of the semester. Bicyclists and pedestrians were faced with savagely restricted passage through the area, which created some very irritating traffic jams.

More recently, renovations were begun on the Modern Languages building. Most of the fourth-floor classrooms were torn apart, while the students left in the few remaining usable rooms were subject to the sounds of falling steel beams, buzzing drills and militant hammers during lectures and exams.

No such nightmare occurred during the North Campus Drive repaving. The dorms were empty, the campus was quiet. A few winter session students may have had to take a detour on their way to the Harvill Building, but the inconvenience was minimal.

The campus is all but dead for one month every winter and three months every summer. That's four months for unadulterated major maintenance work. Why not use them?