East to get a parking garage, some 90s dorms to close

Construction on the new East Campus parking garage, set to open July 2020, will begin right after Liberty University Commencement May 11. To accommodate the garage, East Campus Dorms 191 and 192 will be torn down, and Vice President of Major Construction Daniel Deter said Liberty decided to temporarily close Dorms 190 and 193 during the construction of the new garage in the 2019-2020 school year.

“We know the parking garage construction is going to go on during the school year, and this construction will have times that could be disruptive to student’s daily activities. The new parking garage is only about 30 feet away from those dorms,” Deter said. “(To have) less stress on those students, we’re going to hold those two dorms.” 

If enrollment and on-campus housing demand for the 2019-2020 year is high enough to cause a housing shortage, Deter said they plan to open these dorms, filling the sides farthest from the construction first. The last rooms to be filled would be the ones facing the construction.

About 170 beds will be lost by tearing the dorms down. As a result, Deter is prepared for a possible lack of housing.

“If we do run into a bed shortage, we have a backup plan,” Deter said. “We’ve got Commons I, II and III currently, and I’ve got a Commons IV fully designed and sitting there ready to go.”

The decision to close the dorms was made in mid-March. Deter said Liberty decided this because living near a construction zone is not ideal for students.

“We went through that with the Hill dorms,” Deter said. 

“We tried to be as upfront as we could by explaining that construction activities could be distracting before they moved in, and some students still weren’t happy because they were getting woken up in the mornings, so we’re just going to … try to keep those vacant.”

Other East Campus buildings, like David’s Place and other dorms, will not be affected during construction.

According to Deter, the new parking garage will have about 2,000 spots, 600 more than the one near the Food Court at Reber-Thomas. Three entrances will lead to the garage — one from Liberty Mountain Drive, one that connects to the parking lot near the sand volleyball courts and one from around David’s Place. 

Deter hopes placing the nine-story garage in a convenient location will steer drivers toward East Campus. Its entrance will directly face the pedestrian tunnel, and a covered walkway will lead to the tunnel.

“(The president) wanted to make the parking very convenient for those who choose to park in the garage,” Deter said. “What we’re trying to do overall is to get less vehicular traffic on main campus, so pedestrians are safer when they’re walking to class and all the things they do on campus.”

Deter said the university’s master vision is for someone to come to campus and never have to drive on Main Campus. 

“That was the reason we had to target those two dorms,” Deter said. “It wasn’t anything against those dorms. I know they were really popular … but we had to look at it from a holistic standpoint of how we can keep the traffic on the east side of campus.”

While Deter believes pedestrians and traffic will not be impacted significantly during construction, drivers can expect a little more traffic than usual on East Campus.

Because the garage’s deck is precast concrete panels and columns, trucks will deliver it in pieces. Since each truck can only carry two or three pieces at a time, Deter expects there will be a high volume of trucks to deliver the pieces.

“The way it’s really going to affect (traffic) is there’s an entrance coming in off Liberty Mountain Drive that we’ll probably have to have a flagman for,” Deter said.

Deter said the process has been rewarding.

“Our whole university is getting more public eye … and it’s really satisfying to me to be part of the infrastructure on that, helping the campus evolve into something that I think has turned into something pretty spectacular,” Deter said.