RALEIGH — N.C. State University will close Dan Allen Drive at the railroad overpass next week to install a pair of gates that will be used, starting in January, to block through traffic when classes are in session.

The half-mile street that connects Hillsborough Street and Western Boulevard will be closed starting Monday between Yarbrough Drive and Thurman Drive, which border the railroad track that splits the main campus. The road is expected to reopen next Friday.

The gates will be installed at the railroad overpass. Starting Jan. 14, NCSU will close the gates between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on days when students are in class.

Dan Allen carries as many as 19,000 vehicles a day, with at least one of every five drivers using it as a cut-through between Hillsborough and Western. The gates are intended to promote pedestrian safety and to ease traffic congestion that causes buses on seven campus Wolfline routes to run behind schedule when they use the busy road.

The gates will open automatically for buses, emergency vehicles and campus service vehicles. When other drivers reach the closed gates, they will be able to drive out of the campus by looping back to Western Boulevard via Thurman Drive, or to Hillsborough Street via Yarbrough Drive.

Siceloff: 919-829-4527 or blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown or twitter.com/Road_Worrier/