Brake lights.

The car in front inches forward.

You reach seven miles an hour this time – a new record for 5:30 in the afternoon.

Then the brake lights…again.

Anyone that has driven on Dan Allen Drive between the hours of 5:00 and 6:00 p.m. knows what it’s like to inch up the hill while everyone walking to Frat Court steadily walks past.

Students certainly experience the dreary and often exhausting travel route of N.C. State’s campus during rush hours along one of the few vehicular outlets of campus – Dan Allen Drive, Pullen Drive, or Morril Avenue.

It’s frustrating. It’s stop-and-go. It’s bumper to bumper. It’s impatience. It’s almost disheartening.

Often, traffic from Dan Allen is backed up onto Western Boulevard and Hillsborough Street. The traffic leaving campus is backed up from the intersection of Morril Drive and Avent Ferry all the way to Cates Avenue – and that’s on a good day.

Well, a lot of the stress around Dan Allen will be relieved soon when West Campus gets a traffic bypass surgery – Varsity Drive.

This new cutthrough is going to free up traffic not only on Dan Allen and Sullivan Drive, but it will essentially affect the central and eastern parts of campus as well.

Varsity Drive will join the short list of others in roads that connect campus to the outside world – allowing for students to leave West Campus and cross Western Boulevard about a short city block up from Dan Allen.

The road is currently under construction and will remain so until the project is finished.

So the familiar shortcut around Frat Court will be out of commission until it serves as a complete cut-through to campus.

The new bypass is promising for this campus, not to mention necessary.

This will be the only road that connects main campus to Centennial directly, which will mitigate the travel between the campuses for both Wolfline buses and student drivers.

Travelling between Centennial and Main Campus is nothing short of a hassle since the only way to get there is going up and down Avent Ferry. All of Centennial’s traffic is bottlenecked to the Avent Ferry and Morril intersection, thus a new connection between the campuses will be refreshing and allow for the Wolfline to travel a loop rather than go back and forth.

Transportation will certainly be thankful for that.

Not only is the planned efficiency of the project attractive but so is the price tag. The project is cashing in at a bit over $700,000 for construction costs – none of which comes out of student pockets.

So not only does it not cost students anything, but it is also relatively cheap in terms of the project itself.

The contractor shows signs of expediency, with aims of completion by July. And, as with all outdoor construction, this of course comes with a “weather permitting” disclaimer – since North Carolina is the only place in the U.S. where it can be 60 degrees and 20 degrees within 24 hours.

If any potential negative aspect could be argued would have to be the addition of a stoplight on Western at the new intersection. Traffic flow through there now is pretty stiff – with most drivers having to wait at one of the stoplights and maybe this addition will offer an opportunity for students to flow through those intersections quicker.

But, all things considered, this package is better than a free barbeque in the Brickyard.