Students and visitors to UNM anticipating the opening of the new Cornell Parking Structure will have to wait as completion of the project has been delayed due to what officials are calling "unforeseen sight situations."
The project's original completion date, slated to coincide with the beginning of the fall semester, has been pushed back to October due to numerous problems encountered during the ongoing construction of the project, said Sabra Basler, a transportation information/project facilitator.
"Outdated utilities structure mapping has proven to be a problem during the underground construction portion of the project," Basler said. "The biggest problem came during work on the utility tunnel which will house the building's electric and water lines. However, work on the building is progressing rapidly, and in my opinion an October completion date is a fairly good bet."
Basler said the project has consumed more than $6.3 million, nearly $600,000 more than the project's original budget.
She added that additional costs will be incurred as the project continues past its original completion date, but would not speculate on a figure, only saying that any further expenditures would be negotiated by the involved parties.
Bob Cardenas, project manager for Gerald Martin Contracting, the firm in charge of construction of the 400 space, six-level parking structure, said that when UNM purchased Redondo Drive from the city, much of the information regarding the locations of the original utility lines had been lost.
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Redondo Drive is the campus street that had to be partially dug up to install the new utility lines.
"The old lines had been there since the 1920s and we had very little knowledge about where they were, so we had to take every precaution to avoid damaging them when we began work under the street," Cardenas said.
The Cornell Parking Structure project, which began Sept. 9, 2002, is being funded entirely through UNM Revenue Bonds. The bonds are essentially a loan that will be paid back though the facility's parking fees, which are projected to cost 50 cents per half hour, with a $10 a day maximum, according to UNM's Parking and Transportation Department.
Basler said that although there will be no staff or student permit parking in the structure, anyone who wants to pay the daily rates will be allowed to park there.
She added, though, that University visitors are the targeted customers of the project.
The new parking structure is the first phase in constructing the new School of Architecture building
Original plans had called for the construction of a welcome center and Internet cafÇ, but both of those buildings had to be put on hold as they would have put the project even further over budget, Basler said.
