City engineers plan to add more street lighting along Orchard and Spring Streets to increase overall student safety.
According to Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, while the city does not have a final decision regarding pedestrian street lighting on Spring and Orchard Streets, they are planning to implement lights that have been successful in the past.
"It's obvious that area is a pretty dark area of campus, but adding pedestrian lighting has been pretty successful on areas of Mendota Court and the Bassett neighborhood area," Resnick said.
Resnick said the city is reconstructing the zero and 100 blocks of North Orchard and the 1200 and 1300 blocks of Spring Street, where the Humbucker apartment complex is located.
While only this area of campus is up for renovation, Resnick said all of campus was considered for renovation.
"Essentially we considered every single street in all of the campus area," Resnick said. "This was the immediate need."
In addition to the new pedestrian lighting, city officials are also looking to replace the sanitary and storm water sewers on the same streets.
Resnick said construction could begin as early as 2012.
The construction on Orchard and Spring Streets will be discussed at a neighborhood meeting at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 14 in Union South.
Final approval for the construction will be discussed at the earliest at the Dec. 13 City Council meeting.
- Abby Becker
