Written by: Celeste Lee
The roundabout on Hickman Drive in front of Brock Hall was recently destroyed in preparation for the construction of Southern Adventist University’s new business building, according to Marty Hamilton, senior vice president for Financial Administration.
Hamilton listed two main reasons for disassembling the roundabout and tree island in its center. The first is the university’s goal to visually improve the area surrounding the future School of Business building.
Hamilton called the future school “a signature building.” With the School of Business currently accommodating Southern’s second-largest major, the university wants to recognize its importance on campus by improving the road adjacent to its future home. Hamilton added that for drivers entering campus near the new building, Hickman Drive will be the first road they see in front of it.
“I want to beautify this road and take the opportunity while we’re doing all this construction now,” Hamilton said. “ … I decided we’ve had trucks damage this roundabout, so what I’d like to do is widen the whole road and put trees in the middle.”
This addition would elongate the tree line already on Hickman Drive beginning where it meets University Drive.
Southern is planning to make Hickman Drive a two-lane road with a median barrier with trees. Hamilton added that the university will probably add some necessary signage and regulations.
“There will be either a stop sign or yield to turn onto Hickman Drive coming from the Wood Hall parking lot,” Hamilton said.
As for what kind of trees he plans to plant in the median, Hamilton said, “Maybe some kind of cherry tree where it blooms beautifully in the spring but then it’s green most of the year.”
Hamilton explained that the new road and tree-lined median will discourage trucks from coming onto Hickman Drive. When the trees have branches that hang over the road, big trucks and trailers get discouraged from using the road. They don’t want their vehicle to get stuck or damaged.
“Most of the Apison Pike traffic is going to be away from campus, so I’m not anticipating having a lot of truck traffic coming through Hickman Drive anymore,” Hamilton added.
The second reason Hamilton cited for the road change is to allow larger vehicles easier access to campus during the business building’s construction.
The school doesn’t want all of the truck traffic for the new business building on University Drive, so delivery trucks and heavy equipment will be diverted to Wood Hall via Hickman Drive and then come onsite through the parking lot.
In the past, big trucks or trailers trying to navigate through the roundabout have often hit and damaged it. According to Hamilton, Southern first installed the roundabout and its center tree island years ago using railroad ties to prevent truck traffic from cutting through Hickman Drive. Instead, traffic was supposed to access campus using Park Lane or University Drive. Still, truck traffic came through the roundabout, and year after year, damage continued. It became a pain to fix, according to Hamilton.
Now that Southern is starting to build the new business building, there will be more trucks coming in, and removing the roundabout prevents the area from getting damaged.
In addition to preventing damage to and beautifying the road by the new business building, Hamilton added that the university plans to improve access for pedestrians in the area.
He said he has noticed that students going to the Village Market (VM) from Brock Hall will usually walk through parking lots because there is no quick path between the buildings .
To improve safe and quick passage to the VM, Hamilton is planning to put a sidewalk, or what he called a “small promenade,” connecting the new business building to the main promenade and other sidewalks between the business building and Brock Hall.
