The City of Gainesville Public Works department is preparing for the next phase in an active reconstruction project on Depot Avenue that will affect bus routes.
The second of four segments will start sometime in May and add a peanut-shaped roundabout where Depot Avenue, Southwest 11th Street and Southwest Ninth Road meet, said project manager John Veilleux.
The construction from this phase will affect the 126 and 127 Regional Transit System bus routes, RTS spokesman Chip Skinner wrote in an email.
During the project, the 126 and 127 routes will no longer make stops on Southwest Ninth Street, Depot Avenue or Southwest 11th Street. Instead, the buses will go directly from Southwest 10th Street to the stops on Museum Road, Skinner said.
Contractors delayed the start of the project, so no definitive start date has been established, Skinner said.
The construction is expected to last for more than a year.
Students living in Oxford Terrace, Royal Village or in apartment complexes or houses in the surrounding area will need to meet the bus at different locations.
Oxford Terrace resident Brandon Johnson, a 20-year-old UF applied physiology and kinesiology sophomore, said the route change will inconvenience him.
“Where the 127 currently picks up is a more central location to those residencies,” Johnson said.
Skinner said notices of the changes will be posted on the TransLoc app, the RTS Facebook page and on board the 126 and 127 buses.
“The bus drivers will be reminding the patrons they normally see every day,” Skinner said. “We’ll also be putting notices on our website.”
Royal Village resident Abbey Patterson, a 19-year-old UF advertising sophomore, said she’s upset about having to adjust her morning schedule.
“I will still take RTS to class, but most likely not for early morning classes,” Patterson said. “This will cause me to have to leave earlier to make it to the stop in time.”
Despite the detours, the project’s goal is to improve aesthetics and update the corridor, Veilleux said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 4/21/2014 under the headline "Gainesville public works plans Depot Avenue construction"]
