On a campus where parking is scarce and finding cars parked on the grass and sidewalks is common, parking legally is about to become even more difficult.
The parking ramp near Shaw Hall will close its gates for good at the end of the semester, shortly before being destroyed.
“Engineering consultants tell us that it needs to be replaced because the foundations are no longer in good condition,” said Michael Rice, MSU police deputy chief. “We’ve done about $5.7 million in repairs to the ramp in the last 10 years and we’re at the optimal time to replace it.”
Contractors will begin bidding on the project Friday afternoon. If everything goes as planned, the garage will be turned over to the contractor in early January for demolition, he said. It should take between two and three months to destroy the old ramp and make way for construction on its replacement structure.
Jeff Kacos, director of Campus Park and Planning, has been responsible for the new ramp’s site planning, the details surrounding the ramp and any modifications in the road layout.
He said there couldn’t be a better time to begin the multimillion dollar construction project.
“(This project) is timely, we’re excited that we’re going to get it done and it takes care of some major architectural needs,” he said. “It’s going to be a significant improvement to the current parking situation on campus.”
The existing ramp was built in 1962 and has 975 usable spaces, which are divided among Owen Graduate Hall residents, MSU faculty, staff and graduate assistants. A visitor section accommodates university visitors and students.
Kacos said while it might be difficult living without the ramp for more than a year, the benefits should outweigh the temporary inconveniences.
Abey Abraham, an Owen resident who parks his vehicle in both the Wharton Center and Shaw ramps, is not so sure he agrees with tearing down the existing structure.
“Without the Shaw Hall ramp, the Owen Hall (Wharton Center) ramp is going to get pretty full pretty fast,” the psychology and pre-med senior said. “This is just poor planning on the part of the university.
“They should have to provide some kind of shuttle to those of us that used the ramp and now have to park farther away.”
Abraham says the loss of the ramp will not only affect those at MSU, but the Lansing area as well. Because of the ramp’s location near the MSU-Detroit College of Law library, many of those who need access to the library park there.
Many, Abraham believes, will be left to fend for themselves until the new ramp is finished.
The ramp being built to replace the current structure won’t be completed until July 2002, but will have more than 200 extra spaces.
But the visitor/student section will remain the same size. The new parking spots will also be made available for faculty and staff of the new Biomedical and Physical Sciences Center, a facility also scheduled to open in 2002.
“In the interim, parking in central campus will be challenging,” Rice said. “People who park in the ramp now need to plan ahead before Jan. 7 because they won’t be able to park there.”
There is some excess capacity for parking in the Wharton Center ramp, but those spots will fill quickly, leaving the university community scrambling for any open space it can find.
In an another attempt to rid MSU of traffic problems, 800 new spaces will be available in the new Communications Arts and Sciences Building parking ramp scheduled to open Jan. 7, 2001 - but they won’t be open to everyone.
Students will have to have their cars registered at the Department of Police and Public Safety.
That ramp, like the new Shaw Hall ramp, will have a built-in CATA station with a heated lobby and a place to get coffee and run to an ATM before dropping a quarter in the bus box and cruising into the heart of campus.
“Because the space is so limited in central campus already, unfortunately the option for most people will be to park at some distance from the area,” Rice said, speaking of Lot 89, the commuter lot at Farm Lane and Mount Hope Road.
