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MEMO TO: Department of Transportation And Logistics FROM: Corbin Scott, Ben Nelson DATE: March 25, 2018 SUBJECT: NDSU Transportation Conditions The issue of traffic congestion has been an issue since the implementation of mass transportation systems and has since spurred a variety of solutions and means to regulate this issue. In the situation of resolving excessive traffic in the environment of a college campus, it is necessary to take into consideration factors such as mixed vehicle flow and residential conditions. Specific to NDSU, pedestrians, motorbikes, cars, trucks, buses, and bicyclists are all included in the mixed vehicle flow and similarly residency on or near campus is just as varied. To resolve NDSU’s dilemma with traffic, this memo entails a detailed plan regarding the improvement of the campus’ underground tunnel network and how further expanding upon the system will provide significant results. The complete instillation of an expansive underground tunnel network will minimize campus traffic, reduce potential accidents, increase accessibility, and furthermore satisfy the great number of students and staff who traverse the area daily. Different traffics are more likely to depend on the residency of students and staff members. Students who live on campus are more likely to produce less car traffic and more foot traffic. In contrast, Staff and students who live off campus will likely create more car traffic having to commute to the campus and likely just as much foot traffic. According to surveys conducted by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute there exists a 2:3 ratio between students who live on campus and those who live off, only 13% of those living off campus using communitive transport such as MATBUS to do so (Ripplinger&Peterson, 2012). This ratio implies a greater amount of car traffic making it one of the most popular transportation methods on campus, right behind walking. The bulk of the issue stems from the duration in which students migrate from class to class, those times normally being on the transition from one hour to the next. During these times, students often travel in herds with regularity as well as proximity creating a jam condition/ peak traffic flow as it serves to be the most convenient to their schedule (Yu, Xiong, Duan,Wang, Liu & Zhao, 2014). This overwhelming number of pedestrians inhibits any car traffic at those times and contributes to the given issue of congestion on campus. To resolve the issue, a multiphase plan in expanding the current underground network of tunnels will be carried out under these conditions.    

Multiphase plan that focuses on highly populated areas initially, with later expansion to areas with less footraffic Lighting of tunnels will be dominated by natural light throughout daytime Highly enforced monitoring and plentiful access points to prohibit mischievous behavior Allowance for high volume capacity of students to accommodate rush hours

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Further elaborating on the given plan, construction will first begin sourcing from the central memorial union on campus as the already existing underground infrastructure of the building will allow for an effective starting point. This initial phase will occur begin summer of 18, and will expand Westward to Ladd and Dunbar Hall, Northward to the campus’ engineering complex, and southward to the South Engineering building. Second phase will begin late Fall of 18 and will connect outlying residence halls such as Burgum, the Mathew Living Center and the Bison Courts to more central public halls to establish an outer ring of connection. Lastly the third phase to be carried out the summer of 2019 will connect phase one tunneling to that of phase two through all buildings that have yet to establish and underground connection to the network, thus connecting all student and faculty buildings on campus below the surface. Cost expenditures and building materials have been estimated and looked at extensively based on similar tunneling projects. Current cost models for underground tunnel construction are in short supply, some of which include the publication by National Research Council of Canada as well as a study performed by the trenchless technology Center at Louisiana tech. Due to a great amount of variables to take in consideration, each project is best to be treated as its own, for the main variance in cost pertains to geology. A standard unit cost to abide by is $4,902 US dollars per meter, and with the general estimate of adding about 1500m of new tunneling being added, a total of 8 million dollars serves as a general cost estimate when including a 30% increase off the base per meter total to account for extra services and costs (Rostami, Sepehrmanesh, Gharahbagh & Navid Mojtabai 2013). Such a large design program is not impossible as other campus’ have done similar, and furthermore even larger projects. Most commonly though, in place of traffic being the main cause to implement an underground network, weather also has given rise to need of underground system for the safety of the public. Tyler Kingkade notes in his article from the Huffington post how tunnel labyrinths are used on a variety of campuses including Canlslus College in Buffalo New York, Concorida Universitty Wisconsin, and State University of New York at Albany. The earliest of this tunnel design dates back to the 1920’s at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, known as “The Gopher Way” (2018). Being that underground tunnel systems have been done before, and successfully in northern U.S. climates even , NDSU is prime grounds for the development of its tunnel system to help reduce foot traffic above surface on campus. In conclusion, the current issue of congestion on campus poses a threat to the lives of those who traverse it daily, hence why there is a need to call for action. Being that a majority of this traffic is due to pedestrians and public vehicles the most direct means of resolving NDSU’s dilemma is to expand upon the current underground tunnel infrastructure. as doing so will dramatically decrease the amount of above surface foot traffic that currently impedes existing vehicle traffic. Implementing this system is to commence immediately, initially beginning with underground developments central to the campus’ memorial union building. With the reduction of the rate at which vehicles interact with pedestrians, campus safety will be at an all time high whilst harm to the surrounding environment will be brought to record lows. The implementation of such a modern and advanced system of transport will make NDSU stand out and likely cause many to follow suit.

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Reference List Jamal Rostami, Mahmoud Sepehrmanesh, Ehsan Alavi Gharahbagh, Navid Mojtabai, Planning level tunnel cost estimation based on statistical analysis of historical data, Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology,Volume 33, 2013, Pages 22-33, ISSN 0886-7798, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2012.08.002. Kingkade, T. (2017, December 07). On Some Campuses, Students Get To Class With Underground Tunnels And Skywalks. Retrieved April 10, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/27/tunnels-skywalks-campus_n_6547918.html U.S. Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. North Dakota State University student transit survey, 2010-2011 by Jeremy W. Mattson; David Ripplinger and Del Peterson. Fargo, N.D: Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, North Dakota State University, September 2012 Xiaohan Yu, Shengwu Xiong, Pengfeng Duan Jun Wang, Mianfang Liu, Yang Zhao, " Behavior characteristics of mixed traffic flow on campus", Computational Intelligence in Vehicles and Transportation Systems (CIVTS), 2014 IEEE Symposium on....