• Znine
• Campus Calendar
• My Mav
• UTA Radio
• UTA Home
• Student Email
• Libraries
• Wikipedia

• Local Forecast
• Movie Listings
• Traffic Info
• TV Listings

June 28, 2007

Parking

Weather delays lot repairs

Some faculty members have to find alternative parking while Lot F-12 is maintained.

Story by: Dennis Mitchell

Contributor to The Shorthorn

The Shorthorn: Mykah Wright

The university closed this faculty/staff lot near the University Center on Wednesday. The lots will be closed temporarily for repairs and maintenance.

Foul weather could prolong closure of a large parking lot used by many faculty and staff members who work on the east side of campus.

Lot F-12, at UTA Boulevard and College Street, will be closed through July 6 for maintenance.

Construction project coordinator Don Madison said he doesn’t know if the work will be done on time.

“It completely depends on the weather,” he said Wednesday. “Workers came over today and had to leave. They’ll be back tomorrow, weather permitting.”

Rain has accumulated to about 9.1 inches so far this month, making June 2007 the third wettest in the area’s history, according to the National Weather Service statistics taken at D/FW Airport.

The scheduled improvements — filling cracks, putting down a two-layer seal and repainting stripes on the pavement — must be done in dry weather.

Seven other parking lots are scheduled to be closed for maintenance in the coming weeks. E-mails sent out last week and Wednesday informed faculty and staff about the closures.

Donnie Sweatt, a building attendant in University Center, said he found out at about 7 a.m. Wednesday that the lot was closed. He parked in a faculty lot across the street at UTA Boulevard and Yates Street.

“I was caught flat-footed,” Sweatt said as he was getting into his car. “I checked around. There were very few people here this morning, so I was able to find a spot.”

Sweatt thinks the work on the lot will be worth the inconvenience of having to park elsewhere for a week.

“This is the best time of the year to do it because there are less people on campus,” he said. “But September? I wouldn’t recommend doing it then. It’s worth the improvements that are going to be done.”

The lot, which has 227 spaces, serves mostly faculty and staff who work in University Center and Nedderman Hall.

James Leininger, civil and environmental engineering senior lecturer who teaches in Nedderman Hall, didn’t have a problem finding a parking space Wednesday morning. He parked in the lot just north of the Social Work Complex, on the northeast corner of UTA Boulevard and Cooper Street.

He said the work is worth the inconvenience but questioned the scheduling.

“My question is, it’s empty over there right now. When it was predicted to rain, why didn’t they reschedule it right then?” he said Wednesday afternoon as he walked to his car.

Several faculty members said Lot F-12 is often full and that parking spaces are hard to find.

Susan Midwood, an English department secretary in Carlisle Hall, arrived on campus at 8 a.m. Wednesday to find the Yates Street lot almost full, but she was able to find a space.

“People in the department couldn’t find parking,” she said. “Some had to park in student parking and chance getting a ticket.”

Midwood doesn’t think the improvements outweigh the inconvenience.

“No, I don’t think it’s worth it,” she said. “Because there’s nothing wrong with that parking lot, no big potholes or anything.”