SOUTHEAST PLANNING PARKING GARAGE

Southeast Missouri State University is planning to alleviate some of the parking headaches around the campus with construction of a $12 million park-and-ride structure for use by students and faculty.

The parking facility will be located at the existing lot off of New Madrid Street, adjacent to the Student Recreation Center and near the Show Me Center.

It will be designed as a surface parking facility, using the hills in the current lot to construct lower levels for parking under the surface, said Al Stoverink, director of facilities management.

A public meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today in Dempster Hall to discuss the first round of funding for the project. The funding will be used primarily for initial site design work and preliminary engineering on the site, Stoverink said.

Stoverink said that if a facility like this were built completely above ground, a lot of the space and cost would be tied up in ramps.

"By using the topography we have to build lower levels rather than going upward," he said, "We can save a lot of space and money."

1,800 parking spaces

The current lot has approximately 700 spaces, Stoverink said. When complete, the new parking structure will have approximately 1,800, resulting in a net gain of 1,100 spaces, with more possible.

"The way we are designing it, there will be the potential to develop more spaces down the road if the need and funding arise," Stoverink said.

The facility will be designed as a "multi-modal transfer facility," meaning that students, faculty and staff, and commuters will be able to park their cars at the location and catch the university shuttle buses to wherever they want to go on campus.

Stoverink said that they have already started construction on an interior transitway, which will run from Normal Avenue up around the social sciences building, Academic Hall and the Art Building, and then from Cheney Drive back behind the power plant past the Scully Building, Magill Hall and Towers Complex.

"The intent of the transitway is to ultimately have the buses running every seven or eight minutes and not spend as much time on the city streets," Stoverink said. "The shuttle buses will become something convenient and reliable that people feel comfortable using and it becomes the norm to catch."

Stoverink said the site design isn't completely determined as of yet, but he speculated that the shuttle bus pickup would be at the main point of the facility, and other entrances off New Madrid could possibly be constructed for access to the lower levels. He said the main pickup point will be accessible from all levels of the facility, and that they will work to make the area as lighted and safe as possible.

Safety measures

Some of the safety measures being discussed, Stoverink said, are an extension of the current lighted corridor on campus, possibly having a Department of Public Safety station at the facility, with a waiting area for the buses inside and security cameras throughout.

"For this to work, people have to feel comfortable using it," Stoverink said. "Safety and convenience are our paramount objectives in how to design the facility."

Stoverink said 80 percent of the approximately $12 million needed would be available through the Federal Transit Authority and the Missouri Department of Transportation, while the other 20 percent would have to come from university revenue.

Stoverink estimated construction to begin next summer, with a "usable structure" available sometime in 2003.

Stoverink acknowledged that some parking will be affected during construction of the facility, but that he hopes the parking available in lots next to the Show Me Center can minimize this problem.

"Until the design is finished, we really don't know the scope of the impact," he said.

Stoverink said that the university will ultimately benefit greatly from this facility, but the benefits may not be realized for another few years.

"I think the students tend to expect things right away, and they don't realize how much planning and design goes into stuff like this," he said. "We're dealing with things that won't benefit some of them personally, but will benefit the next batch of students."

WANT TO GO:

WHAT: Public meeting on parking garage

WHEN: 6 p.m. today

WHERE: Dempster Hall on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University