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NEWS
KANSAN.COM
Ex2.1
Ongoing construction brings changes to campus
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CHANDLER BOESE
@Chandler_Boese
Andrea Ringgenberg/KANSAN A new apartment building for students is included in the University's Central District Project. Started early in 2016, the complex will be completed in the summer of 2018.
Several of the construction projects in the University's Central District are ahead of schedule and the University's administrators are preparing for the changes it will bring to campus life.
The $350-million Central District project, which broke ground last summer and is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2018, is well on its way. Some of the earliest projects, including a new residence hall and parking garage, are even running ahead of schedule.
The parking garage, which was scheduled to be completed later this spring, finished up construction last month and looks like it will help lighten up parking on the main campus, said Donna Hultine, the director of the Parking and Transit department. Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, the University's director of news and media relations, said that, thanks to a mild winter and a concentrated effort by the contractor, the garage was able to be finished early.
"The contractor, in partnership with KU staff, recognized that it would be desirable to have the parking garage available for use by the spring semester, and they were able to meet that objective," Barcomb-Peterson said in an email.
Hultine said they've already moved 91 drivers into the new garage. Most of these are employees at the Hilltop Child Development
Center, one of the few buildings in the Central District that is staying operational throughout the construction.
"It's helped to relieve some pressure," she said.
Barcomb-Peterson said since the project involves multiple buildings, utilities and infrastructure, it makes
Parking is in the process of offering the garage as an alternative to drivers who are on the waiting list for the Allen Fieldhouse garage. However, parking is not promoting the new garage or widely selling permits for it yet, as there are still some accessibility concerns with the building.
Hultine said the garage itself is fully compliant with the Americans for Disabilities Act, but the construction going on around it
The demolition of the Burge Union, the building that used to sit by Allen Fieldhouse and Jayhawker Towers, took place in April 2016. But the construction of the Burge Union will not be completed until the summer of 2018, according to the Central District's webpage.
makes entering or exiting the garage on foot difficult.
"In addition, if the union building were to be expedited for early opening, it would be surrounded by ongoing construction," Barcomb-Peterson said. "That would make public access, deliveries, utility services and other operational logistics more difficult, potentially less safe, and more costly."
Logistical concerns, like those seen in the parking garage, are also affecting the timeline for another project in the Central District: the new Union.
more sense and saves money to do them all at once, rather than individually.
However, though students will have to wait for the new union, they will be able to utilize a new residence hall this year. The new dorm on 19th Street and Naismith Drive, behind Oliver Hall, is set to be finished by mid-July, Barcomb-Peterson said. This is slightly ahead of the target date of being move-in ready by the time classes begin in the fall.
The University's Department of Student Housing has not yet placed students in their residence halls for next year, so they could not give any numbers as to how
many spaces are taken in the 545-bed hall. Kip Grosshans, Housing's associate director for administration, however, said interest in the hall has been high.
"As we did when Oswald and Self were new in 2015, we have provided a broad range of information to prospective residents and their families via electronic media, printed materials, and direct mail," Grosshans said via email. "We expect to be successful in our marketing efforts this year as well."
The Central District project also includes a new student apartment building and integrated science facility. Barcomb-Peterson said these projects, which began in early 2016, will be completed in July of 2018.
The final campus addition that students will see in the coming months will be the Energy and Environment Center, located at the intersection of Naismith Drive and W. 15th Street. It will be home to the geology and petroleum engineering departments. Barcomb-Peterson estimates that the center will be complete by Aug. 1.
- Edited by Ashley Hockina
Central District Projects Parking garage (Jan. 2017)
Parking garage (Jan. 2017)
Residence hall (July 2017)
New Union (July 2018)
Apartment building (July 2018)
Science building (July 2018)
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