Construction causes parking problems

Fences recently placed around Georgia College & State University have caused parking confusion.

The parking lot between what used to be Wells Hall and Sanford Hall, as well as the lot behind Adams Hall, have been temporarily blocked off due to demolition and construction going on in the area.

Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Director of University Housing, Paul Jahr said the fenced areas are needed for staging areas and access to new buildings.

Some streets have become overcrowded as a result of the fenced areas. Jahr said the parking problems are “an unfortunate consequence of new construction.”

“The whole parking dynamic changed to that area because of the parking that goes to those two buildings,” director of public safety Ken Vance said.

Vance said some yellow curbs have been drawn to help the problem.

“A lot of parking got displaced but that doesn’t mean for everybody to go parking on the street,” Vance said.

Jahr said yellow curbs have been placed in front of Parkhurst Hall and behind Foundation Hall, as well as on the north side of the area.

“Yellow curbs are placed in areas where parking is generally for access of emergency vehicles,” Jahr said.

Construction of the new residence halls has also required part of Greene Street to be closed. Ambling Construction was granted permission by the city of Milledgeville to close a portion of the street from the corner of Columbia and Greene to the Napier/Sanford entrance. Fences will be up until further notice and signs have been placed to help the flow of area traffic.

Vance said there should be plenty of parking behind the new residence halls for students living there, as around 400 new spaces have been added. Freshman Torrie Pirkle said parking hasn’t been a problem for her since leaving her old home at Adams Hall.

“I don’t have a problem finding a parking space at Foundation,” she said.

Vance said parking patterns may change again as more construction continues. He said it is uncertain at this point how long the fences will be up. Jahr said the area around Sanford and Napier will be involved in construction until August of 2004.

Vance said he was pleased with the way things looked in the area as of Monday morning.

“I would ask that people park only in marked parking spaces,” he said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Mar 14 2003. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry