For most college students, walking to class is normally an uneventful activity. However, for students on the campus of Goshen College, it's anything but a walk in the park.

When Goshen College was constructed more than a century ago, all of the buildings were placed on one side of the tracks. Now, as campus has expanded over the years, students actually have to cross railroad tracks that run through campus to get to the other buildings that have since been added, a recreation center and dorms.

That presents a big safety concern when trains stop on the tracks.

"If it sits there for half an hour, 45 minutes, then the temptation to climb through the tracks becomes real," Goshen College Utilities Manager Glenn Gilbert said. A student on campus, Andrew Witkowski, added, "There's always a few people that I've seen do it. I don't think it's the smartest idea, because if the train starts to move that would be a problem. From what I've heard, someone has been hurt by a train on campus in the past."

The campus has been wanting to build an underpass for decades that would allow students, faculty and community members to pass under the tracks safely. After receiving a grant that would cover most of the $2 million cost, that plan is finally becoming a reality.

Gilbert said construction of the project would begin on July 4, when traffic on the tracks is already stopped. "They will remove about two hundred feet [of the tracks]. They need about two hours to excavate. Then, they'll dig like crazy and plop some pre-formed concrete rectangles that will be about four foot wide, and they'll put a bunch of them down, back fill, compact, put the ground back down, put the track back together and hopefully by midnight, 24 hours later, it will be done."

Northern Indiana Construction was awarded a bid to construct the underpass. That money is covered by a grant through the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement program.

The grant's distributed by the Michiana Area Council of Government.

Goshen College will be responsible for engineering and planning costs.

By the time the tunnel's finished, Gilbert said students won't be the only ones' whose schedules and safety will be back on track. "It's on our campus, but it's not our tunnel," he said. "It's a community tunnel. It's open to the public. It's for the community, enabling pedestrians and bikers to get through, and it really is a public facility, and we want everybody to understand that that's the case."