Issue date: 7/19/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Daniel Williams Heating and plumbing workers dig in the parking lot next to Buzzard Hall Wednesday. The construction has permanently removed 10 parking spots and temporarily removed 27.

Doudna construction expanded last week eliminating more than 27 faculty parking spaces in the surrounding parking lots.

Ten parking spaces in the University Police Department lot are gone permanently and 17 spaces in the east alley adjacent to Clinical Services are temporarily gone, Steve Shrake, Manager of design and construction, said.

"The layout of construction fencing east of the Doudna construction site were recently adjusted by the contractor so he could begin necessary underground utilities work in that area," Gary Reed, director of facilities planning and management, said. "There are a number of water and sewer re-routes which are required to bypass the new section of the Fine Arts building."

"Those 10 spots in the UPD parking lot-that's to get to the utilities across there and around the building, but as long as workers weren't doing the utility work, we just left those spaces available," Shrake said.

When the project is completed, the new addition will stretch far enough north that required areas for storm run off-or landscaped areas-will occupy where the parking spaces were, and the missing spaces along the east side of the alley adjacent to Clinical Services will become part of the new building, Shrake said. However, no spaces in the parking lot south of Buzzard will be lost, he added.

When the Doudna project first started, Facilities Planning and Management anticipated the parking space loss, so they added extra spaces. Approximately 114 parking spaces were expected to be lost due to the three construction projects involved with the Doudna renovation: Fine Arts Renovations, Human Services Center, and the closing of Seventh Street, Shrake said.

"This has been a long process, this building was put on hold for a couple of years, but long ago in preparation for this project we added spaces to the 'S' lot," Shrake said.

Approximately 166 spaces have been added to the S lot, and approximately 68 spaces were added to the lot south of Burl Ives, Shrake said.

"Some people forget, because they've had a couple years here where they've actually had more spaces," Shrake said. "But even when we're done here there's going to be more spaces than there was when we started a couple years ago."

According to Facilities Planning and Management since May 2000, Eastern has had a net gain of 87 parking spaces. This includes parking spaces added to the S lot and Burl Ives deducted from the spaces lost from campus construction, including Doudna and Blair Hall.

Because of the missing spaces congestion, accidents and navigation will be become more of a problem with the beginning of school, UPD Patrol Officer, James Williams said.

"I haven't noticed parking problems, but I have noticed navigation problems," Williams said about the missing spots affecting the summer traffic.

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