Road Relocation
Geneva College
gets to the route
of a divisive problem.

Bill and Carolyn Flinn's first encounter with Geneva College left them wondering, "Where is the campus?"

The Flinns, residents of Bethel Park, were driving their daughter, Jennifer, to Geneva for an admission interview and tour of the Beaver Falls campus in the fall of 1995.

Southbound on Route 18, the Flinns were alert, looking for the campus entrance. Ahead, the road made a 90-degree left, followed by a quick 90-degree right. As the car rounded the second bend, the family caught a glimpse of an old stone building hidden behind a stand of trees. Then it was gone, and a high brick wall blocked their view.

The brick wall must be a stadium, they deduced. By the time they realized that, they'd driven right past the college, off College Hill and into downtown Beaver Falls.

"There was no sign, no indication," Carolyn recalls. "You had to be a detective to find Geneva."

Even after the family turned around at the bottom of College Hill, the Flinns weren't sure where they were supposed to go.

"It was very confusing," Bill says. "My thought was, ‘Where's the college? Where's the front door?'"

That's hardly the welcome Geneva, a Christian liberal-arts college of 2,100, hopes to extend to visitors. But for decades the college could do little to improve the situation. Since the mid-1920s, a major north-south artery, Route 18, has sliced through the center of campus. As a result, college buildings are strung along the highway like beads. Visitors don't so much drive onto the campus as through it.

The Flinns were also quick to observe another part of the problem: the daily threat Route 18 poses to pedestrians and motorists.

Left: Moving Route 18 will allow Geneva to unify its campus.

"It concerned me from day one," Carolyn says. "When I saw those kids crossing the street on their kamikaze mission to get to class, I thought, this is not good. When kids are late for class, they don't look for trucks. They look for the fastest way to cross the road."

The college's 1,400 undergraduate students each cross the road an average of six times a day. And nearly 17,000 vehicles daily use the segment of Route 18 that runs through campus.

Compounding the danger is the shape of Route 18 itself. Within 500 feet, the road takes two 90-degree bends, a quick left-right combination that limits visibility and sometimes sends truck loads flying.

The S-bend's tight curves also choke commerce in the Beaver Valley. Tractor trailers can't negotiate the curve without swinging into the opposite lane or driving onto the sidewalk, so the state has restricted truck traffic to trailers shorter than 28 feet. Local businesses are forced to abide by the prohibition or ignore the law. Some chose to leave Beaver Falls.

While Geneva has sought to move Route 18 for more than 50 years, funding for the highway construction never found its way out of Harrisburg.

Until now. Through Geneva's consistent prayer and political lobbying, federal and state lawmakers found the $3 million needed to relocate the road. The state Department of Transportation plans to begin construction on the new Route 18 by the fall of 2006.

The relocation will straighten out the S-bend and swing the highway westward, bypassing the campus instead of bisecting it. Motorists driving south on Route 18 will continue straight onto what is now Fourth Avenue instead of making a 90-degree left turn. The highway will continue straight until it passes 31st Street, where it will gently bend leftward and eventually rejoin the current route at the bottom of College Hill.

"The relocation of Route 18 presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform our campus," says Sam Siple, Geneva's vice president for institutional advancement. It also presents a challenge.

"When the PennDOT trucks roll away, they'll leave behind the roadbeds from Route 18 and several side streets," says Siple. "Visitors won't have access to campus from the new Route 18."

To answer this challenge, Geneva needs to come up with at least $5.7 million. Increasing tuition isn't an option; the college would have to raise rates by 20 percent, making Geneva too expensive for many students. Instead the college is launching "Beyond the Bend - Making the Path Straight," a drive to raise the money through grants and donations.

"Beyond the Bend" will bring about the most significant changes the campus has seen in decades. Major elements of the project include:

• Construction of a campus gateway, located at what is now the intersection of 31st Street and Fourth Avenue. Spanned by a wrought-iron archway, the gateway will unmistakably mark the entrance to campus.
• Landscaping along new Route 18, clearly defining the campus border.
• Additional visitor and student parking throughout campus.
• Removal of the old roadways and blending them into existing landscaping.
• A pedestrian mall in the area between Old Main and Alexander Hall with brick pathways and spots for students to gather.
• Extensive renovations to Reeves Stadium, possible for the first time because Route 18 will no longer run up against the stadium wall. Improvements include a new press box, ticket booths, and concessions stands, handicapped-accessible restrooms, safer stairways to bleacher seating, a wider pathway along the top of the seating and a new iron fence with brick pylons.
• Work to prepare the site of Geneva's future center for the arts, which will be located near the college's entrance.

The new Geneva will have a cohesive, unified, peaceful atmosphere. It will feel like a campus, not a thoroughfare.

"It'll open up the campus and make it a much nicer place to live and go to school," says Bill Flinn, who is now helping to lead fundraising for "Beyond the Bend." "When we get it done, I think it'll be quite attractive."

Right: Plans for a campus gate that would welcome arriving visitors are under way.

Despite their less-than-stellar first impression of Geneva, the Flinns eventually sent Jennifer and later their son, Jason, to the college. Both parents agreed that the warmth they felt from the college's admissions staff and faculty members outweighed the S-bend.

"I could have been turned away by the fact that Geneva didn't have the draw of a beautiful campus entrance," Bill says. "If you don't know the people and the philosophy of the school, it could drive people away before they even find out what a gem Geneva is."

— Josh Earl Publications Manager, Geneva College