Students at Baker University will soon have an improved parking situation.
Work to expand the amount of parking on campus could begin as early as next week, Director of Physical Plant Gary Walbridge said.
The area behind Denious and Pulliam halls will be graded and paved and the drainage improved, he said.
“There are two things we want to gain out of this – parking for more cars and more organized parking,” Walbridge said.
The parking lot of Irwin Hall will also be expanded by adding diagonal parking on the side facing Ninth Street, he said.
“We hope to gain at least twelve and possibly thirteen or fourteen spots,” Walbridge said.
Senior Jonathan Affalter was part of the Interhall Council committee that devised the parking plan during the 2003-2004 academic year.
The plan was approved by student senate and then sent on to Vice President for Financial Services Jo Adams and others, Affalter said.
The plan also included a color-coded system and a parking fee that would help to pay for the project and for the work-study checks of students responsible for monitoring the parking lots and handing out fines, he said.
Adams said Baker was intent on not charging a parking fee, and this part of the plan had been dropped.
However, Adams said she was hopeful a method implementing a color-coded system could be devised.
The IHC plan had also called for vertical street parking in front of Irwin Hall, Affalter said.
Adams said this element of the plan had also been dropped because of the excessive cost involved due to the presence of utilities under the street.
Affalter said the IHC committee had estimated a cost of $15,000 per parking spot.
Both Adams and Walbridge confirmed this number.
Students living in Denious Hall will be notified as soon as a set date for the work is established and will have to park their cars in other parking lots on campus for the duration of the work, which should last two to three days, Walbridge said.
“The key to this will be to give plenty of warning,” he said. “We are confident the students will cooperate because this will benefit them.”
The work will be done by McConnell & Associates, which is currently working on the football field parking lots, Walbridge said.