The expected completion date for the new campus parking lot, under construction where Short and Denney Hall stood until recently, has been pushed from August to October.
Associate Vice President for Facilities Kevin Carter said, “The parking lot is expected to be completed by mid-October, weather permitting.”
Carter said the lot will contain 71 parking spaces.
“The parking lot was designed by Crafton Tull Engineering and follows ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] guidelines,” Carter said.
Sophomore Kathleen Armstrong commutes to campus and said she struggles to find parking spaces available to her.
“Even when I get to school as early as possible, it takes forever to find a parking spot,” Armstrong said. “Most of the empty spaces are either for faculty or resident students.”
She said it would be nice to have more parking on campus, but doesn’t think another lot is the answer.
“I hope it will solve the parking issue, but also, I don’t think it will. There are more than 71 students struggling to find a parking space,” Armstrong said.
On March 2, in a Board of Trustees teleconference meeting, UCA President Houston Davis said creating a parking lot in this space will create more access to certain buildings.
“It will better service the Ronnie Williams Student Center as well as Snow Fine Arts,” Davis said. “With both those buildings, there is a challenge that we do not have parking available.”
During the teleconference, Davis said Short and Denney Hall did not qualify for potential renovations as it would cost $8.1 million necessary structural repairs. Davis said the $8.1 million estimate does not include the renovations or the architectural engineering fees that would’ve been required to remediate the building.
“It would bring us to almost double the cost of even the most expensive of the dorm renovations that we’ve done in the last five years,” Davis said.
The demolition of the building began in early May.
According to the Board of Trustees agenda for March 2, the building’s asbestos removal and demolition was estimated to cost $803,130, sourced from housing and plant funds.
“The physical plant’s role was working with Nabholz to develop an initial scope of work,” Carter said. “We hired Environmental Enterprise Group to do an asbestos survey, which identified all of the areas in the building with asbestos.”
Carter said outside contractors tore the buildings down.
“We hired Nabholz Construction through our job order contract with them to perform the work. They subcontracted the demolition to a company that specializes in building demolitions,” Carter said. “The equipment used to demolish the building included large track hoes, skid steers and dump trucks.”
The same agenda stated the parking lot construction was estimated to cost $421,704, also using housing and physical plant funds.