With campus settling in for a busy summer of construction, the University's master parking plan began to feel growing pains once again Monday.
The Divinity School parking lot closed, Circuit Drive street parking was eliminated, a portion of the spaces in the lot outside the Office of Information Technology was removed and Science Drive was closed to street traffic, soon to become a cul-de-sac.
Altogether, the changes comprise the latest phase of the long-term transportation changes that now regularly visit campus every summer. For 442 permit holders, it all meant parking somewhere new.
Director of Parking and Transportation Cathy Reeve said the day went relatively smoothly, something she attributed to communication from her office during the last month and parking attendants stationed at key points.
"People were able to figure it out," Reeve said. "We had already programmed it in their heads with lots of e-mails. We also had parking enforcement officers stationed all around, and they directed them to where they needed to go."
The one confusion, she said, came at the Hospital, where, in exchange for eliminating 260 permit holders' spaces on Circuit Drive, the University gave the Hospital 150 permits for the Circuit lot behind Trent Drive Hall, which the University also calls "X Lot." The hospital already calls another parking lot by that name, so the move confused some Medical Center employees.
The rest of the displaced drivers will now park on LaSalle Street or in the undergraduate Blue Zone lot, where gates are open. Reeve said the University also has increased bus service between LaSalle and Circuit 11, to help ease the park-and-ride process.
The 182 people who parked in the Divinity Lot--where construction of the new engineering building and the Divinity School addition is beginning--will eventually be parking in the spots that the Facilities Management Department are vacating to move to the Smith Warehouse on Maxwell Street.
Those who parked in the dirt lot on Campus Drive and Anderson Street also need to find a new place to park for the next several weeks, as the University began paving the lot Wednesday.
With decreased demand for spots in the summer, Reeve said displaced drivers can park wherever they can find legal spots, including the Blue Zone, where they can park until August.
"Everything is underway," Reeve said. "Just wait until August."
Over the summer, Reeve said the road work should be completed, although the new engineering building and the parking deck--to be built next to the Bryan Center--will be in the beginning stages of construction.
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