The roughly 750-spot parking garage smack dab in the middle of the University’s campus will officially open in the upcoming spring semester, said Facility Services Planning, Design and Construction Director Roger Husser.
“Although susbstantial construction of the garage will be complete at the end of November, elevator and security camera installation is [still] in progress,” Husser said.
The original deadline of early spring 2012 has been pushed back almost every month throughout the year, said Parking, Traffic and Transportation Director Gary Graham.
Graham couldn’t specify exactly what has held up the $22.5 million project, but he said a specialist in finishing projects, Ed Reymer with Satterfield and Pontikes Construction, Inc., the project’s contracting company, has been brought in to help.
Jerry M. Campbell & Associates was hired by the University as the architecture firm for the project, but the firm could not be reached for comment.
Dennis Mitchell, landscape design manager for Facility Services, acknowledged the project was behind schedule, citing the complexities involved with the project’s location as another possible reason for the delay.
“The problem is it’s just behind construction-wise,” Mitchell said.
Although not directly involved with the garage’s construction, Mitchell said unforeseen setbacks happen regularly with large projects, and in a heavily trafficked section of campus, pedestrians and cars can cause all kinds of problems.
“If it were in a field by itself, there’s a very good chance it would’ve been completed by now,” he said.
Rows of cars flanked the sides of the garage’s first and second floors Tuesday but painted lines have yet to be seen, and the elevator shafts appeared far from complete.
Once officially opened, the garage will consist of one-fourth residential parking, one-fourth faculty and one-half metered visitor parking, Graham said. A broadcast email Tuesday afternoon announced the closure of Raphael Semmes Road westbound from 6 a.m. Wednesday until noon today due to construction on the parking garage.
