Students walking on campus might experience a disruption to their normal route due to a new hangout space, Reed Green Coliseum renovations and a traffic calming project that are in the works at USM.
Right beside the Cook library, people can hear and see excavators, bulldozers, dumptrucks and more, with a construction crew working to create a new project. It is called the Forrest Avenue project, and it is a continuation of the first phase that finished in March of last year. The area will be a new pedestrian pathway through Forrest Avenue with new seating, string lights and more. USM’s physical plant project manager, Michael McCullum, said it will be a space for students to hangout and engage.
“This will be another space that’s different from just studying and sleeping, but they can interact, engage and hang out on campus,” said McCullum.
Junior and forensic science student, Toryn Posey, said the construction can get chaotic when traveling to class, but thinks it could be something useful.
“I know it’s been going on since last semester, and it’s not as much of a hindrance as I thought, but it does get kind of chaotic when traveling to class,” said Posey. “Maybe it’ll be something useful, you know.”
Like Posey, some students might experience some minor disruptions to their usual routes heading to classes or home. McCullum said there might be slight disruptions, but that is the cost of progress.
“So we’re creating spaces for you guys to have better space on campus to enjoy,” he said.
The first phase of the project will finish in May, and the second phase will begin right after that.
The Forrest Avenue project isn’t the only one taking place on campus. The renovations on the Reed Green Coliseum have been fully funded and are soon to start. The first bid package will go out in the next few weeks, and then the construction on the site utilities for the practice facility will start.
The construction will take place over the next three years. McCullum said the gym will stay open for basketball to practice and play games.
The third project that is on the horizon for USM is the Traffic Calming project on Fourth Street. This project will fund and create new safety measures for the crosswalk on Fourth Street. In conjunction with the city of Hattiesburg, USM received a grant to make Fourth Street safer.
“There’s been a lot of accidents with students crossing, and it can get dark at night. We got the money for that, and we have started planning and designing for that right now,” said McCullum. “So that’s going to add some stop lights and just control the traffic there,” he said.
McCullum said he hopes that everyone knows safety is their team’s number one concern and they do their best to put the students first in everything that they do. The next few years will be filled with these projects to try to make the college experience better for the USM students and community.
