With a trench in the middle of the lane, construction is still ongoing during the Spring 2018 semester. Cars had no choice but to go around the site.
Construction on the parking garage in the Southern Avenue lot and the land bridge over the train tracks is scheduled to begin during the spring 2018 semester.
Although the land bridge could potentially cause traffic delays on Southern, University of Memphis Assistant Vice President of Planning and Design Tony Poteet said the university is dedicated to maintaining the flow of traffic.
“We will do our best to minimize impact to Southern Avenue traffic during the project,†Poteet said.
The long-anticipated land bridge will stretch over the train tracks at what is now Echles Street, allowing access to the U of M main campus even if a train is passing.
The construction area right in front of the Gather on Southern apartment building. Tony Poteet, assistant director of Campus Planning and Design, said the parking garage on Southern Avenue should begin construction next month.
The Daily Helmsman previously reported the project, originally planned to begin construction in October 2016, was delayed for bidding to be approved and will cost $18.6 million, creating room for 1,140 general access parking spaces.
Commuter student Nathan Laub is willing to deal with more construction for the land bridge and more parking spaces.
“I think in the long run, that’s a good idea,†Laub said. “I think the extra parking is going to be a great thing. If you park on campus, you know it’s really hard to find a parking spot. It’s going to be something that we have to deal with for a little bit of time.â€
In addition to several areas on campus shut down for the parking garage and land bridge, several roads around campus are construction zones, causing backups for students coming to class.
“I’m really not sure what it is about,†Laub said. “I’d like to have an explaination of why I’m late to class. Whenever you’ve got a combination of the construction plus the train coming, it is hard to compensate for it.â€
Fellow commuter student Jacob Martin agreed about the construction happening during the semester.
“They definitely should not have done it when there’s a bunch of students trying to get to class,†Martin said.
