BOULDER, Colo. -- The road is short, just over a mile long and leads to just a parking lot. But it is one of Boulder’s most popular for bike riders and walkers who want to get a hard, quick workout. The curvy Mesa Lab entry road that leads to the National Center for Atmospheric Research will be rebuilt to allow for an uphill bike lane and a separate pedestrian lane.

"It's a little narrow, so one of the improvements that we’re making is adding a pedestrian sidewalk on the downhill side and adding a bike lane on the uphill side,” said Matt McMullen, director of facilities management at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which oversees NCAR. "It will provide a nice separation for the vehicular traffic, especially in winter time. It will be nice to have folks off to the side."

“I love riding up the road," said Janet Evans, who works part time at NCAR. "I ride up about two times a week as long as the temperature is above 32 degrees.” But sometimes vehicles pass very close to her as she rides up the hill. "It took getting used to at first, but most of the cars notice me because I’m on a recumbent bike."

The concrete bike path on the uphill side will allow room for the slower bike riders to climb the hill with some comfort room to allow for faster vehicles. Since most bikers ride at the speed of traffic downhill, the six-foot pedestrian sidewalk will be on the downhill side.

"It’s been something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. People have always been nervous about having an accident here and have always said that this would be a desirable project. We did an environmental impact study to make sure we weren’t disturbing any of the native areas down here. We get a lot of people up here walking dogs as well," said McMullen.

Part of the reason for the work is that many of the employees either ride their bikes or walk to work. The separate areas away from the road will provide those areas with a safe separation.

"We have a pretty multi-modal organization where a lot of folks ride their bike or walk to work. In fact, our president rides to work quite a bit," said McMullen.

Many of the bike riders and walkers use the parking lot to start their workout. NCAR has an agreement with Boulder County open space that makes the parking lot outside the facility an unofficial trail head.

"It’s pretty constant during the week. The weekends are big with people off of work, but we get a pretty constant stream of riders and walkers," said McMullen.

The $1.6 million cost of construction is being paid for by the National Science Foundation as part of capital improvements. As part of the work, the NCAR parking lot will also be reconstructed. Several times during the project, the road will be restricted to just a single lane.

"The road and parking lot have not been worked on in over 20 years so this project should take us through the next 20 to 30 years," said McMullen.

The parking lot area will lose about a third of the available spaces at any time, so McMullen is asking people who usually use the road to take a hiatus until all the work is complete in the next two months and leave room for staff to park their cars. "We’re under construction right now, so we’re encouraging folks who come up here to either carpool or walk or ride or use one of the other Boulder open space trail heads until we are complete with the project."

"I’m so excited. I’ve been waiting for this even though it’s going to be messy while they are constructing," said Evans.

The project is scheduled for completion on Oct. 19.