Construction to affect campus roads, parking

The university is gearing up for several major construction projects this year that will affect campus roads and parking.

Ten building projects totaling $171 million are slated to begin construction this year, with two – the Fluno Center for Executive Education and the Lot 36 (Steenbock Memorial Library) Ramp – expected to break ground in April.

Several road and utility projects are scheduled as well, including an overhaul of the Park Street underpass, planned by the City of Madison, that will close Park Street from Regent to Dayton streets from July to October.

The UW–Madison construction boom will result in the reconfiguration of some university roads and the net loss of 367 campus parking spaces, including 283 parking spaces that will be permanently lost. The parking spaces will be made up starting this year and in future years through the construction of more parking ramps on campus.

“We have a tremendous amount of construction activity about to begin, in addition to the many projects that will be completed this year,” says Bruce Braun, assistant vice chancellor of Facilities Planning and Management. “We are concerned about the impact these projects will have on our students, staff, faculty and visitors, and we are examining measures to help ease the inconvenience some people will experience.”

Braun laid out this year’s planned construction activity at Thursday’s meeting of the Campus Planning Committee, a university wide group of faculty, staff and administrators that examine long-range planning issues.

He emphasized that not all of the projects will be underway at the same time, which he said will help alleviate some of the inconvenience. His office is considering how to keep the public and UW community informed of the projects as they progress this year, including using the World Wide Web to post updates, he said.

Braun said the parking situation needs to be viewed in the context that the campus has had a deficit of almost 500 parking spaces in each of the past three years and has been able to effectively manage the reduction.

“We’ve contended with the losses the last three years and will continue to contend with them until all of the ramps are built,” he told the committee. Three parking ramps are anticipated to be built on campus within the next two years.

The west side of campus will be a hub of construction activity starting this summer. Additions to the Waisman Center and the Clinical Sciences Center will begin in July and August, respectively. Construction of the new School of Pharmacy building will start in September.

The Waisman Center addition will be completed in January 2000, the Clinical Sciences Center in December 1999 and the Pharmacy School in September 2000. Observatory Drive will be reconfigured to the north as part of the Pharmacy School project, with work to begin in May. Utility work in this area will close Marsh Terrace.

The Park Street renovation project will create a four-lane, divided underpass and raise the railroad tracks that run above the street. The project will start in March and last about 18 months. Braun says the university will do an education campaign to make sure motorists are informed about the project and how to best navigate the campus while Park Street is closed.

Other road and utility work on the west side of campus will result in changes to Babcock Drive that will widen it to two lanes and add a right-turn-only exit to Campus Drive. A West Campus utility project could limit Linden Drive to one lane for a short period of time this spring and limit traffic on Elm Drive to one way from mid-April to mid-November. Half of the bicycle path along Lake Mendota will be converted to use for vehicles during this time.

A water line replacement project starting mid-March will result in construction on Bascom Hill through mid-July and the possible reduction of Observatory Drive to one lane at times from Bascom Hall to Elizabeth Waters Hall from July to December. Construction on the Murray Street underpass near the Kohl Center is set to begin in late March and last until July.

UW Medical School Dean Philip Farrell, a member of the Campus Planning Committee, told the group that the short-term inconvenience of the construction activity won’t compare to the long-term benefit the projects will add to the university.

“This is the price of progress,” Farrell said.

Other construction projects that will start this year are the Goodman Softball Complex and the Primate Center additions in June, the addition to the Chemistry Building in August and the Environmental Management Center in October.

UW–Madison construction projects scheduled to be completed this year include the Southeast Ramp addition, March; Biochemistry, June; Bock Labs and Material Science & Engineering renovations, July; Red Gym renovation, Humanities remodeling and Van Vleck Hall classroom remodeling, August; Eagle Heights Community Center addition, September; Pyle Center (formerly known as the Wisconsin Center), October; Lathrop Remodeling, December.