Columbia Street lane closed until Friday as part of Porthole Alley renovation

One northbound lane on South Columbia Street will be closed today through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. as part of an ongoing construction project to renovate Porthole Alley.

The road closure is the next phase of a project to improve pedestrian safety, said Jill Coleman, design manager for the project. The project will close Porthole Alley and only allow pedestrian and bicycle traffic to enter and exit on Franklin Street.

To remove vehicles from the alley, a driveway is being built between the Ackland Art Museum and The Top of the Hill Restaurant that will connect South Columbia Street and the parking lot adjacent to Porthole Alley.

“It’s been something that I think people have been interested in for many years,” Coleman said. “Comments about safety and lighting in that area have been coming up for many years, and besides just the safety aspect of it, I think people would like to make (Porthole Alley) more attractive.”

The projected budget for the Porthole Alley project is $2.85 million.

UNC junior Kayla Seiffert said she is glad the alley will be pedestrian-only.

“I don’t see a lot of cars that come through here, but when they do, they’re definitely trying to battle with the pedestrians,” Seiffert said.

The road closure on South Columbia will allow construction workers to have space to work on the edge of the driveway where it meets the main road, Coleman said.

“I can’t predict what the impacts will be, but it is a coordinated effort,” Coleman said. “We’re monitoring it carefully, we’ll respond to any issues and make the duration of that closure as short as possible.”

Pankti Patel, a manager at Top of the Hill, said they have taken extra steps to make sure customers know they are open during construction.

“A lot of times when people see construction going on around a building they tend to think the building is closed or that there isn’t an easy way to get around to it,” she said. “We decided to put signs up right under the ‘sidewalk closed’ signs that say that TOPO is open, so that’s helping.”

Ian Philipp, a graduate student at UNC, said so far he hasn’t been affected by the construction.

“They’re starting to close off that area but it hasn’t been too bad. I just walk around it,” Philipp said.

Coleman said they are working closely with the North Carolina Department of Transportation, the town of Chapel Hill and UNC to put up detour signs and communicate with local businesses.

“With construction projects, issues come up and we just work to resolve them,” Coleman said. “We tried to be very thoughtful in the phasing of the project and working with the people in the immediate area to make them aware of what we’re doing and if they have issues that they have a place to get them resolved.”

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