Photo provided to the Daily Mining Gszette Shown is a map of the Michigan Tech campus which is distributed to incoming students as they navigate traffic Saturday.

HOUGHTON — Michigan Technological University will be welcoming students to the campus this weekend, and Lt. Marc Geborkoff of MTU Public Safety would like to let the local community know that this weekend traffic will be heavier than normal, particularly around the MTU campus.

“It’s Move-In Weekend for first-year students,” Geborkoff said. “It’s kind of like the kick-off this weekend and into the week.”

Sunday will begin Orientation Week for the new students, Geborkoff said, but the upperclassmen have already started coming back.

“Traffic is going to pick up, hotels, businesses, they’re going to see a pick up in business,” Geborkoff said, “but mostly the traffic, especially the traffic on the east end. On Saturday with the move-in, it gets very congested, so we just want our local community aware of what’s going on.”

Travis Pierce, chief housing officer and director at MTU, said that the residents who live on Woodland Road in particular will be impacted by the move-in. The McNair Residential Hall is the largest of the halls and houses approximately 850 students.

“We’ve got potentially 1,000 students moving into that area,” said Pierce, “so, Woodland changes that first weekend.”

At the top of First Street, east of McNair Hall, traffic will turn right (west) onto Woodland Road, and if First Street is backed up, students will be directed to use Second Street (please refer to map to the left of this article).

“With the traffic backed up on Woodland, we recommend that people go out on Mill Road, and access U.S. 41 that way,” Pierce said, “Or, go out past the cemetery and to the top of MacInnes Drive, and out onto Sharon Avenue.”

MTU Public Safety will have two extra officers manning the intersection of U.S. 41, First Street, and Cliff Drive, Geborkoff said, to help keep traffic flowing smoothly.

“Of the first-year students coming in, 60 percent are planning on arriving between 9 a.m. and noon,” Pierce said. “And the police departments will have officers assisting traffic on U.S. 41.”