Strathmore Drive under construction to increase clearance height

This post was updated on June 24 at 6:25 p.m.

Campus officials have closed Strathmore Drive between Westwood Plaza and Charles E. Young Drive East until the end of August as workers increase the height of the bridge above the street.

Students will still be able to walk under the bridge during the construction, but traffic is blocked in both directions. Drivers driving on Strathmore Drive to Lot 8 will only have one entrance and exit, UCLA spokesperson Alison Hewitt said in an email statement.

The project involves lowering the road under the bridge to increase the clearance height from 11 feet to 14 feet, said David Karwaski, senior associate director of UCLA Transportation, in an email statement.

He said officials pursued the project because several trucks – about three each year – have become stuck under the bridge. No injuries were ever reported, he added.

The costs for the project cannot be estimated because it is part of the larger UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Conference Center construction project, said UCLA spokeswoman Rebecca Kendall.

Some students said the construction will be inconvenient for them because they walk under the bridge from the North Village apartments to get to campus.

“It becomes inconvenient to have to weave my way through the parking lot to get to class everyday,” said Garrett Gregory, a second-year applied mathematics student.

Other students said the change would not heavily affect their commute or walk to campus as much.

“I park in (Lot 8) everyday so I don’t mind the construction because I have to use the parking lot anyway to get to campus,” said Reen Elteriefie, a research associate in UCLA’s department of chemical engineering.

After the project is completed, UCLA Transportation officials plan to direct some BruinBus routes along Strathmore Drive, but no changes have yet been made to the bus routes, Hewitt said.

Compiled by Roberto Luna Jr. and Shreya Maskara, Bruin senior staff.