If all goes according to schedule, sometime today, Nov. 20, Granite Construction Co. will replace the stop signs at the East Entrance roundabout with yield signs and the traffic control staff will retire from the field. The majority of the intersection’s roadwork will be completed, but other parts of the job will remain to be done, according to Croft Yjader, project manager for physical facilities.

“The end of Phase II and beginning of Phase III means that the roundabout will function as a roundabout,” said Yjader. Campus-bound traffic from Highway 217 will be able to move freely to the right onto Mesa Road.

Exiting campus in the evening will likely be slow at first as drivers become accustomed to using the roundabout from Mesa and Lagoon roads. Also, Yjader says to expect occasional “minor delays” as Phase III landscaping slows some traffic on these two roadways.

But the end is in sight. Granite’s contract calls for final completion by Jan. 5, 2007.

No one will welcome the end of routine traffic control more than the men and women of Transportation and Parking Services’ enforcement unit who have performed this duty under hazardous and dirty conditions since June. “It’s been a tough job, and they’ve done it well,” said Yjader.