The Gasconade County R-2 board sent out a request for proposals to begin calculating the cost to contruct a bus lane in front of Gerald Elementary School (GES).
During the Sept. 21 board meeting, …
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The Gasconade County R-2 board sent out a request for proposals to begin calculating the cost to contruct a bus lane in front of Gerald Elementary School (GES).
During the Sept. 21 board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Chuck Garner said the bus lane would improve safety measures at pickup and drop off locations.
“We have a bus road on campus, but the bus lane would be 430 feet in front of GES that will be designated for bus loading and unloading only,” Garner said. “We have submitted the request for proposals (RFP) to begin the bidding process.”
While district officials have met with MoDOT, they will need to meet with them again to start the formal requests for permits once the project is approved.
“The project is not approved (by the board), and we won’t have to go forward with that until it is, but we have already met with MoDOT and got preliminary approval for the project,” Garner said.
The goal is to provide a safer environment for students to load and unload buses, while separating parent pickup and drop off locations.
“We have a safe location now on the east end, but can only load and unload one bus at a time,” Garner said. “This way we can do all the buses. This will be easier and safer to stage buses in a line in one lane.”
The scope of the project is to allow for students to exit the building from multiple locations and to ensure easier loading. Parents would be in a separate location from the bus drop off and pickup location.
Buses would enter the lane on the west end of the building just after Old Potosi Road, turning onto a 40 foot driveway. They would exit on the east end of the building from the lane onto Highway 50.
“The district would have to ask the city of Gerald to reverse a decision to make the road on the east end of the building — where the buses currently load and unload and exit — from a one-way road to a two-way road,” Garner said in his report. “Parents for pre-school could utilize this access in a turnaround to drop off by the garage and then proceed back out, similar to a cul-de-sac.”
The project is still in the preliminary stages to determine if it is feasible.
