BLACKSBURG, Va., April 19, 2006 – Renovations and new construction on the Virginia Tech campus this summer will result in several parking and roadway changes that affect students, faculty, and staff.
The Durham Lot, located off Stanger Street behind Durham Hall and previously assigned to Faculty/Staff parking, was permanently closed earlier this month to provide a construction staging area for the new Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) building. The 98,000 square-foot ICTAS facility, which will face Stanger Street near the Old Turner Street intersection, will house over 40,000 net square feet of laboratory facilities and also provide administrative space for the institute.
Designated handicap (HC) spaces in the Durham Lot, which are adjacent to Durham Hall, are not affected by this project and will remain open, as will the access road to the loading docks at Durham and Randolph Halls.
Replacements for faculty and staff spaces lost in the Durham Lot have been established in Perry Lot 3, near the intersection of Stanger and Perry Streets, by converting 110 previously designated student (C/G) spaces to a comparable number of faculty/staff (F/S) spaces.
Construction of a new 45,000 square-foot Surge Building, to be located on the site of the existing Lower Stanger parking lot (off Turner Street near the intersection with Prices Fork Road), will result in the temporary loss of this entire parking lot during the construction of the building. The construction is currently planned to begin in October 2006 and be completed in six to eight months. During the closure of the Lower Stanger parking lot, replacement parking spaces for faculty and staff will be provided in Perry Lot 3 by converting additional C/G spaces to a comparable number of F/S spaces. Once the Surge Building is completed, the F/S portion of the Lower Stanger parking lot will reopen as before.
The Surge Building is named after the intended purpose of the building. The "surge" concept has been used successfully on other campuses where extensive renovations disrupted normal departmental activities, and is designed to provide temporary quarters for impacted academic and administrative units in the most cost-effective manner while still maintaining the affected unit's operating integrity.
In anticipation of the loss of commuter/graduate parking spaces from new buildings, a parking lot is already under construction which will provide some 335 additional C/G parking spaces. The new Smithfield parking lot is located along Smithfield Road adjacent to the existing Duck Pond Road lots and is expected to be open for use in August, in time for the start of fall semester.
When asked about these changes, Steve Mouras; the Director of Transportation, commented “We are committed to maintaining an appropriate number of spaces to support our faculty, staff and students. It’s fairly common that new buildings are built on top pf parking lots so we have pro-actively prepared for these changes and prioritize our reallocation of spaces to our faculty and staff. Our goal is to ensure that replacement spaces are identified as the losses occur to minimize the disturbance to our customers.”
In other construction-related changes on campus, several roads will be temporarily closed this summer to support repairs and to assist the installation of new underground utilities. Specifically:
-- Spring Road; between the entrances to the Coliseum Lot and the Stadium Lot will be closed to thru traffic to support the construction of the new West Stadium parking lot from May 15 to July 7.
-- Washington Street; between the entrances to the Litton-Reaves Lot and the Horticulture Lot will be closed to thru traffic to support the installation of new underground utilities starting May 15, for approximately three to four weeks.