Extra high school lane opens Monday
The traffic nightmare that is Warren County High School on any given weekday morning looks to be lessened considerably as the school has widened its entrance to accommodate two lanes of incoming traffic.
“I think it will cut people’s wait in half,” said high school traffic controller Nathan Smith. “This should ease people’s stress problem in the morning.”
The widening of the high school’s entrance was completed Friday. The project, completed by the school system’s maintenance department, follows a project of the Tennessee Department of Transportation, which added an additional turning lane into the school earlier this summer.
School and TDOT officials are optimistic the combined projects will help ease the school’s congestion, particularly in the mornings, when a combined 2,626 students, teachers and staff from the high school and adjacent Hickory Creek Elementary descend on the joint campus from all across the county.
For traffic to move at an optimal speed in the expanded lanes, Smith urges student and parent drivers to become aware of which lane in which they need to turn.
Students parking in parking lot sections A, B and C, as well as parents dropping off their children, need to use the right-hand lane, he said. Students parking in sections D, E and F should use the left-hand lane.
“It’ll be a learning process for a few days,” said Smith.
Final work on the expanded entrance, including a final layer of pavement and the addition of curbs, will be completed in the spring.