Ithaca College

Construction on a new sidewalk along Rt. 96B/Danby Road, the main route that connects Ithaca College to downtown Ithaca, is moving forward to provide members of the IC community and Ithaca residents with safer pedestrian access to and from campus. Construction will take place on the east side of the road—the campus side—extending from the Ithaca College main entrance to the Town/City of Ithaca municipal line at Grandview Avenue, beginning on Monday, June 8. 

While the project will not entail any detours, it will require the temporary closing of the two northbound lanes headed into the City of Ithaca to accommodate the sidewalk work. Traffic in both directions will be shifted over to utilize the two southbound lanes from near the main Ithaca College entrance to the Ithaca city line. Construction is expected to take about three to four months.

The project is intended to create safe pedestrian access and accommodations and is a collaboration between the City and Town of Ithaca. It follows recommendations from the Danby Road Pedestrian Corridor Study commissioned by the town and completed in 2016. The city built its portion of the sidewalk in the summer of 2019.

Funding for the project, estimated to cost $1.3 million, is provided in part from the Federal Highway Administration’s Transportation Alternatives Program, which is administered by the New York State Department of Transportation. These funds will cover 80% of the cost of the project, with the remaining 20% provided by the Town of Ithaca and Ithaca College. Last October, the Ithaca College Board of Trustees approved granting an easement to the town to allow a portion of campus land to be used for the sidewalk.