Construction plans to renovate the Southern Avenue border of campus are on their way, beginning with the general parking garage.
M. David Rudd, president of the University of Memphis, tweeted on Tuesday the latest image of the work “to begin soon.â€
A concept drawing shows the planned renovations for the Southern Avenue border of the main campus. A parking garage holding 1,140 parking spaces, a land bridge over Southern Avenue and a new recreation center are the next phases of construction.
The U of M planned to build a new parking garage in October 2016, as previously reported by The Daily Helmsman, but had to push it back until bidding was approved. Now the school is moving forward with the new plans.
The northeast corner of the South Lot on Southern Avenue and Echles Street will be blocked off until Friday in order for a consultant to decide on the best way to lay the foundation for the garage.
“They have to survey the soil samples,†Tony Poteet, assistant vice president for campus planning and design, said. “They need to see if there are any unknown structures or other things that may have to be removed.â€
Ground breaking should begin in about a month by demolishing the Printing Services Building and sending the rest of the parking lot out for bid for construction, according to Poteet.
Once the building is demolished, they hope to have the bid approved and put down a foundation for the new garage, Poteet said.
“The new parking garage will be a general parking access garage with 1,140 spaces,†Poteet said.
There are two phases for the construction, according to Poteet, and there are different contractors for each. The same contractor would build the parking garage and the pedestrian land bridge in the same phase.
The pedestrian land bridge should stretch over Southern Avenue and the train tracks. It will end on the south side of campus and stop at what is now Echles Street.
The northeast corner of the south lot on Southern Avenue and Echles Street is currently blocked off. A consultant must survey soil samples and decide on the best way to lay foundation for a new parking garage.
The strip of Echles street from Spotswood Avenue toward Southern Avenue would not be a road anymore, but a walkway toward the bridge, Poteet said.
The Tennessee Board of Regents is still looking over plans for the new recreation center.
“They assist us in getting state building commission approval, since we are changing the scope and the funding amount for that project,†Poteet said.
The rec center was originally planned to be built by 2018, but President M. David Rudd delayed it for 18 more months last spring. The plans were sent back to be redesigned, because building the rec center was more complex than expected, Poteet said.
The U of M will soon send out a fact sheet on the rec center project in regards to the rescoping and restructuring, Poteet said. He said the projects should not be delayed any longer and will be bid on soon for construction to begin.
“I think we’re right on track with these projects,†Poteet said.
