The West College Avenue project is hitting a bump in the road because of Rivian’s plans for a new parking lot on the south side of their building.
Design for the project started before Rivian announced plans for the new parking lot. That parking lot made it necessary to conduct a traffic study. That study recommended more improvements than had originally been foreseen.
In response, the Town of Normal approved funding for further roadway design.
“It made sense to take a step back and look at what’s going to accommodate the traffic for the future given the modifications that Rivian is making to their site plan with the parking lot so rather than build a bunch of stuff that doesn’t work we wanted to make sure that it will work for the traffic that’s coming,” said Normal’s public works director Ryan Otto.
Rivian’s new parking lot is suppose to make it easier for those employees that work in that area of Rivian’s complex to come and go safely from and to their work spaces.
“Because of the (traffic) volumes expected the West College plans were changed to include traffic signals at gate four and gate five,” said Otto “along with some turn lane additions and things like that.”
Rivian worked with Farnsworth Group, the state and the town to have the traffic study conducted.
The traffic study was initiated last year when Rivian announced its parking lot plans and was only recently completed.
The council approved modifying Farnsworth’s contract in the amount of $129,803 for their services.
