A small portion of Stadium Way near the Stephenson Complex on the Southside of campus will remain closed during the month of July as crews work to repave the road.

The project began Monday and is scheduled to be completed on July 27, according to a WSU news release.

Adam Ferry, facilities services project manager, said the repaving has been in the works for a while.

“That lower section of Stadium Way was in pretty poor condition and has been on the books to be repaired for the past few years,” he said. “This project is essentially to try to clean things up down there and to start over new basically.”

Repaving the road is considered a minor capital project, meaning the state provided the $434,000 of funding needed for the road work, Ferry said. Motley- Motley Inc. of Pullman are the company carrying out the construction work.

Road conditions is an area Facilities Services focuses on, Ferry said, and Stadium Way needed attention due to its high level of wear.

“We try to maintain our roadways the best we can and this one was just starting to look pretty bad and feel pretty bad when you would drive over it,” he said.

Craig Cole, director of construction services, said this portion of Stadium Way was high on their list of projects.

“This was our next priority as you can see it was in pretty bad shape,” Cole said.

Traffic detours have been set up in the area as vehicles are only allowed to travel northbound in one lane, while all southbound traffic will be forced to take an alternative route via Nevada Street next to Cougar Health Services, Ferry said.

While the detours may have an impact on traffic, he said buses will still be able to travel through the area as discussions were held with Pullman Transit prior to the start of construction to ensure bus service would not be disrupted by the work.

Ferry also said it was not possible to avoid doing the work during Alive! orientation sessions, as there is not a long enough break between sessions at any point during the month.

Ferry said Motley-Motley provides the traffic control services and now is the ideal time to carry out these projects.

“Summer is the best time simply because there’s less traffic in general with students being on vacation,” Ferry said.