KSU Pedestrian Walkway and Elevator Tower

This project was performed under Palmer Engineering’s Statewide LPA General Services contract.

The Kentucky State University Pedestrian Walkway and Elevator Tower will provide students/faculty a safe route from the south side of campus – which currently provides dorms and parking – to the north side, which has the Student Center and all classroom buildings. Currently, students walk through a dark tunnel or cross US 60 at unmarked locations, which creates an unsafe situation.

The proposed walkway and elevator tower will enable students to safely cross US 60. The project will also extend the ADA-accessible areas of campus across US 60. The walkway will provide direct access to Hathaway Hall and to the Student Center in the center of campus.

The Palmer Team began the project by performing a scoping study that explored various concepts for connecting campus, providing aesthetics, and estimating costs for the various options. As part of the scoping study, Palmer coordinated with all utility companies to determine the exact location of their lines and determine if they can be avoided or if relocation would be required. During the coordination phase, utilities and survey data were gathered and used to develop the layout of the tower and position piers to reduce impacts. The scoping study developed concepts for concrete and steel bridge alternatives along with determining the least intrusive location for constructing a student drop-off area. By shifting the drop-off zone to the west, a major AT&T switching station was avoided; storm and sanitary sewer impacts were also minimized.

The Palmer Team developed final plans for the tower and pedestrian walkway and coordinated all utility relocations for the project area. Detailed survey of the interior makeup of Hathaway Hall was performed by Palmer’s surveyors to determine the location of the building tie-in. Coordination with utility companies required numerous meetings and revisions to the relocation plans in order to relocate an electric transmission line off site and other overhead lines underground.