Drivers dropping off and picking up students at Gunn High School will have a new access point to campus by the time school opens next month.
The new "Miranda Drop-Off" for the first time will allow general vehicle access to the campus on a paved driveway from Miranda Avenue, near its intersection with Arastradero Road.
Bicyclists will get a separate entrance in the form of a ramp that links the existing bike path to parking racks near the school's two-story math and English building.
A new vehicle curb cut on Miranda will take cars onto a driveway that runs parallel to the existing bike path and extends all the way back to the year-old math and English building.
The first 230 feet of the driveway will be available for vehicle drop-off access, with a 20-foot-wide rotary that will allow cars to turn around to exit campus. Beyond the rotary, parking spaces will be available for Gunn staff, construction manager Tom Hodges said.
The Miranda project includes changes to the traffic signal aimed at cars exiting northbound Foothill Expressway and proceeding across Arastradero to Miranda, Hodges said. The new signal will be longer, he said, and a right-turn lane will be painted for cars turning into campus. Cars exiting the Miranda drop-off will be required to turn right on Miranda.
The $2 million Miranda addition is one of many school construction projects completed or underway across the district under the $378 million "Strong Schools" bond passed by voters in 2008.
Other "Strong Schools" projects at Gunn have included a $4.8 million aquatics center, a $5 million industrial arts building, a $12.2 million second gym, a $25 million project that included the two-story math and English building plus a five-classroom World Languages building and the retrofitting of older classrooms with air conditioning.
Still to come at Gunn is the so-called "Central Building Project" that ultimately will see demolition of the current music building and construction of an addition to the front of Spangenberg Theater that will include a student lounge and activities area, student services, flexible classrooms and potential space for a college and career center.
