Editor's note: This article has been edited since its posting, to change the date of the gate's first day of operation to Wednesday, Sept. 25, two days later than originally announced.

By Dateline staff

The campus will have a new west entry gate as of Wednesday, Sept. 25, and another new gate will go into service soon on Arboretum Drive off Mrak Hall Drive.

The west entry gate, on Hutchison Drive west of the Silo gate at California Avenue, makes for an expanded campus core, where most motor vehicle traffic is prohibited in favor of pedestrians and bicyclists.

The other gate will allow limited access to Arboretum Drive, for service vehicles and delivery trucks, for example. Otherwise, this section of the “old” Old Davis Road is strictly for pedestrians and bicyclists, now that the “new” Old Davis Road is open around the campus's southeast corner.

Safety concerns on Hutchison

Safety concerns prompted the new Hutchison gate: It closes off a 1,200-foot section of road, west of the Silo gate, where pedestrian and bicycle traffic has grown significantly with the addition of the Life Sciences Building, and the Sciences Lab building and lecture hall, as well as the Unitrans terminal across from the Silo.

The project includes a visitor kiosk in parking lot 41, across from the Life Sciences Building just west of the new gate. The kiosk sits next to a turnaround; it’s for drivers who end up at the gate by mistake, or because they thought they could drive through the campus.

The gate will be in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, blocking access to Bioletti Way, parking Lot 42 off Bioletti Way and Lot 43 next to the Silo. If you do not now have a gate card, and you need access to the campus core, you must make arrangements with Transportation and Parking Services, or TAPS. 

People who use Lots 42 and 43 will need to find alternatives outside the core, say, Lots 40 and 41, or the west entry parking garage.

Student attendants will be on duty in the visitor kiosk from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on schooldays.

Earlier coverage: “Expanded ‘campus core’ adds to pedestrian, bicyclist safety,” Dateline UC Davis (Dec. 7, 2012)

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