Students who bought parking passes for the parking garage at LSU Union Square will finally be getting their money’s worth after the six-week delay to the garage’s opening.
A University broadcast email announced the garage’s opening Friday and said students with passes would be credited $40 to offset the delay.
Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation Director Gary Graham said issues with two or three of the elevators in the garage delayed the opening, which was set for early January before heavy rain delayed final fencing and landscape work.
The 750-space parking garage at LSU Union Square divides student parking, faculty and staff parking as well as paid meter parking, with access to the garage from East Campus Drive.
Student parking permits for the garage cost $330, compared to the $165 students pay for resident, Greek and commuter passes, Graham told The Daily Reveille in January.
The garage consists of 90 spaces for faculty and staff, 200 spaces for students and 460 spaces of metered parking, Graham said.
Faculty and staff parking is available on the first floor, with student parking on the fifth and sixth floors of the garage. Wand-accessed parking is reserved around the clock for assigned permit holders only.
Paid metered parking is also available on the second, third and fourth floors for $1.50 per hour every day from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The $22.5 million parking garage, originally set to open during the spring 2012 semester, has been continuously pushed back each month throughout the year, Graham told The Daily Reveille in November.
Graham said he expects the garage to raise $1.2 million in revenue, with most of that money coming from the visitor parking in order to pay back the bond used to build the garage.
In terms of safety, the garage will be equipped inside and out with a total of 47 security cameras, including cameras in the elevators. The garage will also have security guards on patrol from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, Graham said.
LSU Police Department Spokesman Capt. Cory Lalonde said the police department is not going to have anyone directly assigned to patrolling the garage, but there will be frequent patrols of the area.
“We will concentrate with mountain bike and motorcycle officers because it will be easier for them to maneuver in and out of the garage,” Lalonde said. “Other officers will still patrol the area 24/7, just like we patrol all the other areas of campus.”
