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West Lot construction impacts parking, bus routes

By Madeleine Thibaldi     9/5/13 7:00pm

Rice University student parkers received an email Wednesday, Aug. 28 from Facilities Engineering and Planning informing them of lot closures due to the pending construction of the George R. Brown Tennis Complex.

"FE&P is in the process of closing off areas of West Lot 2 and 3 for the future tennis complex near Rice Boulevard," Manager of Communications for FE&P Susann Glenn, wrote in the email. "We are asking all parkers to relocate from these areas before 7 p.m. this Friday, Aug. 30."

Parking Manager Mike Morgan said that although close to 600 spots are being occupied by the construction, everyone who previously purchased a permit for West Lot would still be able to park there.



"The biggest impact people will notice is where you used to swim in spaces in West Lot 3, there will be very few spaces," Morgan said. "West Lot 2 will fill up more often."

According to Morgan, commuters arriving later in the day will have to park in West Lot 4, and occasionally in West Lot 5. Morgan said resident students should be able to keep a spot in West Lot 3 and should not fear being displaced to the Greenbriar Lot, which will be the last resort and will occur only during game days when West Lots 4 and 5 are sold to capacity.

Morgan said that the Inner Loop bus will now make a modified loop around West Lot 3 to accommodate extra space for the construction site. 

According to Assistant Vice President for Project Management and Engineering Kathy Jones, the conception of the tennis center began in 2011, but student parkers were not notified until early last week.

Jones College freshman Joan Liu said she would have liked more notice from FE&P.

"I think that the parking team did a poor job of notifying people of the situation," Liu said. "It would have made more sense for students to know about the construction plans before they paid for parking."  

Jones said she anticipates only a small portion of the parking spots occupied by the current construction will be restored once the project is completed in June 2014.

Glenn said that while no concrete plans have been decided on yet, FE&P will work toward solutions for improved parking in the future to better serve Rice faculty and students.

An email from Vice President for Administration Kevin Kirby Aug. 30 reminded Rice students, faculty and staff that although parking will be more limited, they should still park their cars within Rice's campus to avoid disturbing the surrounding neighborhoods.



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