On Monday morning, when all the graduation ceremonies are over and the last mortarboard has been thrown, new challenges will come to campus in the form of two major road-construction projects.

Starting June 15, commuters will want to avoid the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue at UCLA’s northeast corner, and detour around Strathmore Drive between Charles Young Drive and Westwood Plaza. Drivers should plan ahead and expect traffic delays if they need to travel near these areas.

Phase I of the project at Hilgard and Sunset is expected to last until the end of July. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power work crews will be digging a trench so they can install a large water line beneath the intersection. The work will require reducing traffic to one lane in each direction on Sunset, west of Hilgard, and temporarily eliminating southbound turns onto Hilgard. The new water line will run several hundred feet south down Hilgard. This will increase the water-delivery capacity for Westwood.

“The hope is to get Phase I completed as quickly as possible, and to minimize the congestion from it,” said David Karwaski, senior associate director of planning, policy and traffic systems for UCLA Transportation. “We’ve been making sure everyone’s aware that it will be a bottleneck location for people to avoid, if possible, or give themselves extra time to get through.”

UCLA Transportation advises drivers to avoid that stretch of Sunset by entering campus from Wilshire Boulevard, approaching from either the 405, Sepulveda Boulevard, Veteran Avenue, or Beverley Glen Boulevard. The DWP aims to finish Phase I before the Special Olympics come to UCLA on July 25, but has not guaranteed that end date. The closures on Sunset Boulevard and southbound access to Hilgard will re-open during phases II and III, during which portions of Hilgard will be reduced to one lane in each direction. Throughout the project, UCLA Transportation advises commuters parking in Structure 3 to approach from Royce Drive.

On Strathmore, the road under the pedestrian bridge spanning the street will be lowered to provide extra clearance. Part of the street will close in both directions until the end of August. With 11 feet of clearance at present, trucks have been known to ignore the posted warning signs only to crash and get stuck trying to drive under the bridge. The project will lower the roadway to create 14 feet of clearance, Karwaski said.

“The Strathmore bridge-dig is a great project and something that we’ve wanted for a very long time,” Karwaski said. “The Transportation building is right next to the bridge, and every so often you can feel the building shake from a truck hitting the bridge. Fortunately, no one’s ever been hurt. This will also be a great improvement for busing options on campus, because buses will now be able to use Strathmore.”

Pedestrians will be able to cross under the bridge during construction, but Bruins parking in Structure 8 will have access to only one entrance and exit on Strathmore.

Additional information is available on Transportation’s webpage about summer construction.