Emory Report

October 2, 2000

Volume 53, No.6

UA deck to open its gates on Oct. 9 By Michael Terrazas Emory commuters will soon have an alternative to circling the University's parking decks in search of an open space. The University Apartments deck will open Oct. 9, and anyone interested is encouraged to give Emory's newest facility a try. As has always been the plan, some University groups will be reassigned to the UA deck immediately, according to Bill Collier, director of Parking. Egleston and clinic employees will be reassigned during the weeks of Oct. 9 and 16, while Emory Hospital employees will be moved starting Oct. 30. In total, Collier said, more than 1,100 employees will be reassigned to the UA deck, which has capacity for 1,897 vehicles. Most of those 1,100 are people who currently park in the Peavine and Michael Street decks. A number of students will also be reassigned to UA. Anyone with a valid Emory parking permit, deck or on-street, will be permitted to park in the UA deck, Collier said. "We are going to have the gates open and have staff and enforcement officers there to assist, and shuttles will running every five-to-10 minutes to campus." Because of some delays in the federal funding being used to buy the vehicles, those shuttles will not be the electric-powered variety-yet. Emory is receiving a federal grant to help pay for the electric shuttles, and delays in grant process will keep the vehicles from arriving for another nine-to-12 months, according to Brian Shaw, director of Alternative Transportation. "Anytime you're getting money from the federal government," Shaw said, "time is not an issue. You get it when you get it." Until then, Shaw said compressed natural gas shuttles will operate on the UA route (route C) from 5 a.m. to 12:15 a.m., Monday through Friday. In the mornings, the shuttle will leave the UA deck, cross the bridge over the railroad tracks to Turman Residential Center, turn right on Haygood, left on Ridgewood, right on Lowergate, left on Clifton, right on Fishburne, right on Asbury Circle and follow Asbury back across Clifton, where it becomes Haygood, and back to the deck. In the evenings the route essentially will be reversed. As far as the deck itself, Capital Program Manager Hector Morales said construction is all but complete, with only some "punching out" with the contractor remaining: things like final landscaping, the sign at the entrance to University Apartments and the deck's entrance gates. Morales said he hopes to have the UA deck completely finished by the end of the month. That's when the remainder of the full-time employees slated to park at UA will be reassigned there, and also when Collier said his office and Campus Planning might hold a ribbon-cutting to officially christen the facility. Return to October 2, 2000 contents page