photo by: Journal-World file photo

Hillcrest Elementary School, 1045 Hilltop Drive.

As students in Lawrence start their next school year, the City of Lawrence has shared updates on a couple of ongoing construction projects that could impact traffic for a handful of schools.

One project, for example, is taking place along Inverness Drive on the west side of the city, just down the street from Sunflower Elementary School and Southwest Middle School. That project is supposed to conclude in October, but the city announced Wednesday that single-lane through traffic on the street from Clinton Parkway to 27th Street will be operational by noon on Saturday.

The city is encouraging students walking or biking to either school to use the east side of Inverness Drive, from Clinton Parkway to Sunflower Park Place. By using that roundabout, students can cross over Inverness Drive to reach the schools. A crossing guard will be in place at Inverness and Sunflower Park Place Thursday morning, and students approaching from 27th Street should use the crosswalk between Inverness Court and Wildflower Drive.

Over in the central part of the city, construction along Ninth Street near Hillcrest Elementary School is also ongoing. The city announced Wednesday that it anticipates allowing through traffic on Ninth Street between Iowa Street and Emery Road by Thursday, Aug. 24.

In the meantime, officials with Hillcrest Elementary have coordinated and shared a new carpool route for families to use while construction continues, and there will also be an option for traffic coming from northbound Highland Drive to turn left onto Ninth Street to reach Iowa Street.

Students walking or biking to Hillcrest should approach the school from the south. The city says it hasn’t yet filled crossing guard positions for Hillcrest, so there won’t be crossing guards in place for the first day of school on Thursday.