However, another project in town, the reopening of Jeff Hill to one-way vehicular traffic, did not meet its projected completion date of Sept. 1.

Andy Stone, city director of engineering and public works, said Friday that construction company Shelly and Sands met the incentive date of Aug. 31 to have all lanes and pedestrian walkways open to use in the Richland project.

"There will continue to be work, mainly on the periphery," Stone said. "That is to say, landscaping, seeding, finishing some grading, and just clean-up work around the edges."

Painting of the bridge and some light work also still needs to be done, he said. A dedication ceremony will be held on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 10 a.m., Stone said. Phase four consists of wrap-up work, and everything is expected to be completed with the project later this fall. For instance, he said that trees will be planted in October.

"It's not something that's going to wrap up tomorrow and be complete, but it's substantially complete at this point," he said.

The pedestrian tunnel under the west side of Ohio Rt. 682 is complete, he said, with lights installed. But the city is also planning on installing some cameras in the tunnel that haven't been put in yet, Stone said. These cameras are an anti-graffiti measure, he said.

Stone said that the intersection functioned well during move-in week, and that feedback has been positive.

Many critics of the roundabout, in both letters to the editor and online comments, predicted disaster as thousands of OU students and their parents thronged into Athens over the past five days. However, the expected traffic jams at the roundabout for the most part never materialized.

Stone noted that the city installed new detection loops for the traffic signals across the bridge at the intersection of Richland Avenue and Shafer Street.

"Those have been broken for several years because of the condition of the pavement, and they haven't been functioning," he said, which has made the signal reliant on internal timing instead of detection of vehicles. "So that signal should function a lot better now that those are in. It already is. We're not having the backups we've seen."

WITH THE ROUNDABOUT NOW OPEN, a number of citizens have expressed concerns about unfamiliarity with negotiating it, and the city has provided an instructional video on its website.

The video lays out some basic principles for approaching the roundabout. It states that yielding to all traffic circulating within the roundabout before entering is the single most important rule. Drivers must also make the appropriate lane choices based on their destination before driving through the roundabout.

"After you enter the roundabout, never overtake other vehicles or change lanes," it says. It also advises to slow down, as roundabouts are designed for speeds of 25 miles per hour or less.

Drivers must also give special consideration to large trucks and trailers.

"Never pass or drive adjacent to a truck within a roundabout," the video states. "Driving behind large trucks is preferred."

It is also important for drivers to make way for emergency vehicles by either pulling over to the right if one's car is not yet in the roundabout, or driving through and exiting the roundabout to ensure emergency personnel can get through.

The video advises pedestrians to use the roundabout's "refuge island" to cross both lanes of traffic safely. It tells bicyclists to use the pedestrian crosswalk, and only experienced cyclists should ride through the roundabout.

The video explains that police officers will direct traffic during special events.

While some residents have reported witnessing sideswipes in the roundabout, or nearly being sideswiped themselves, the Athens Police Department has reported no serious accidents within the roundabout (though one crash did take place over the weekend).

WHILE THE ROUNDABOUT MET ITS expected completion date, OU and the city's joint Jeff Hill project did not. The completion date had been Sept. 1.

The reason they did not meet that date, Stone said, is because with the OU portion of that project, which is the chilled water lines, construction was delayed while waiting for various parts that are constructed after being ordered.

"They're doing that work this coming week," he said. "We could've had them go ahead and put the top coat of asphalt on and open the road, but we decided to hold off on that until the work in those vaults is done."

This was because the lines need to be pressure tested once the project is complete, and if it failed the road would need to be dug up.

"We didn't want to cut through brand new pavement to dig up failed sections," Stone said.

He said he expects the road to be open to traffic no later than Sept. 17, but probably sooner than that.

The "Jeff" in Jeff Hill is short for Jefferson, which refers to the large OU residence hall at the bottom of the hill. The street was shut down to vehicular traffic in 2002 after pipes underneath it burst.

Any questions on these projects may be directed to Engineering and Public Works at 740-593-7636.