Construction of the Randall B. Terry Jr. Companion Animal Veterinary Medical Center has begun and will be a two-year process involving changes in routes to campus and parking.
About 200 parking permits will be lost on the College of Veterinary Medicine campus during phase one of the construction until the completion of the parking deck in the summer of 2009, according to David Gregory, parking services manager.
Those who already hold C permit parking spaces will be eligible to participate in the lottery that will be held to determine who will get to keep the remaining 330 parking spaces that will be available, according to the CVM Web site.
“The people who are displaced will have other options for parking, such as the pasture area off Blue Ridge Road, the Fairgrounds lot and the Carter-Finley Park-and-Ride, they will not be abandoned,” Gregory said.
Students who do not win the lottery will be asked to hand in their parking permits before phase two of the construction begins and will be given a pro-rated refund with no additional fees for handing back the permit, and employees who are asked to return their permit will no longer have payroll deduction for their parking permits, according to Gregory.
The remaining names on the list of those who did not win the lottery will serve as a waiting list for those permits that may become available from April 2008 to summer 2009, according to the CVM Web site.
“No one is ever happy about having to move their parking spots, but I think that the College of Veterinary Medicine has been very proactive in conveying the urgency of this construction project as well as communicating with students, faculty, and staff about what is going on,” said Christine Klein, information and communication specialist for Transportation.
The department is offering a carpooling program for students who park at CVM and has agreed to exempt students from the lottery who register for carpooling provided that all but one driver turn in their parking permits.
“University Transportation is making several changes due to the construction on the CVM campus, including several changes in the Wolfline routes,” Klein said. “The Vet school detour for March 15 to March 23 is an upcoming one, and Rt. 6 Carter Finley will turn around in the parking lot of the Vet school with no through traffic on William Moore Drive, which will mean only one pick up at the Vet school.”
There will be closures beginning next week on William Moore Drive for work related to the Terry Center Project. There will be two different closures beginning Saturday to coincide with Spring Holiday, when there will be less traffic and the work should be completed by March 22, according to the CVM Web site.
“This is a very unique situation and fortunately CVM has taken the initiative about talking to students, faculty, and staff about the upcoming changes,” Gregory said. “We are more of an operation support system for the CVM during these changes.”
