Motorists who use Culver Road in Knox will soon have to slow down for a raised crosswalk. The school board last week agreed to add the safety feature to the ongoing building project, at the recommendation of Superintendent Dr. William Reichhart.
“It’s a 10-foot wide sidewalk that’ll go through the middle of the street,” Reichhart explained. “It’ll be next to the library fence, and it will go over to Door 5 at the middle school. It won’t be a speed bump. It’s a speed ramp.”
Rieth-Riley will install the raised crosswalk this summer at a cost of $22,000. The crosswalk also got the approval of the Knox Board of Works last month, on the condition that the school corporation cover the cost of removing it if it’s no longer needed.
Reichhart told city officials that it’s part of a larger plan to overhaul the traffic flow in and around the Knox Schools campus, following the planned demolition of the elementary school’s Palmer Wing. He said that to separate bus and car traffic, the middle school’s car drop-off area will be moved to the parking lot south of Culver Road, the area now used for elementary drop-off. But that will require a safer way for middle school students to get across the street. Elementary drop-off would then be moved to a new looping driveway around the remaining administration building.
The school board also finalized a $200,000 contract last week with Moake Park Architectural Group, the firm selected to do the design work for the high school’s new vocational wing.
