The lanes of Shaw avenue were congested this week after the City of Fresno began a construction project in front of California State University, Fresno.

The construction zone, roughly extending from Freeway 168 to Freeway 41, consists of a project where the City of Fresno is making segmented repairs to damages along Shaw avenue. The project received a notice to proceed on Oct. 7. Dec. 4 marks the end of the contract when all repairs should be complete, according to City of Fresno construction manager, Jim Sullivan.

The construction crew works on the grinding of old pavement at night and replacing new pavement during the day, Sullivan said.

Although paving in front of the campus was expected to be finished no later than Oct. 23, striping will still need to be painted.

Lane closure and delays vary throughout the construction zone. But the effort is made to keep “at least one lane open, and whenever we can open two, or all three,” Sullivan said.

The crew is constantly moving and lanes open and close as necessary to make the repairs. Sometimes single lanes are closed for five minutes before they’re opened back up, officials said. During heavy traffic times, such as the lunch hour, Sullivan predicted these closures would cause delays of up to 10 minutes.

Fresno State student Michael Williams was supposed to deliver a Power Point presentation earlier this week.

“I didn’t get to do it because I was late,” Williams said. He said that the traffic delayed him 30 minutes the morning of his presentation and he was unable to attend class. Although his instructor is allowing him to give the presentation on another day, he will lose points off of his grade.

Other students just showed up late to class, after being unprepared for the stop-and-go traffic on their way to class. Pictures of the construction were taken from cell phones and posted on social media Web sites Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Liberal studies major, Angela Her, was spared from delays on her way to class after heeding to these warnings.

“I heard people were getting to class late because of the construction, so I took a different route,” Her said.