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Summer to see many V2K changes

St. Louis U. High’s campus will continue to undergo changes as part of the Vision 2000 (V2K) construction program this summer. These changes will include a new student parking lot, which will result in several different parking procedures next school year.

The new parking lot is already partially completed; sophomores and juniors began parking on the lot off Berthold Avenue behind the Science Center on April 18. Currently, the segment of Berthold that separates this lot from the Science Center’s secondary lot is being torn up. This section will be replaced with more parking spaces, uniting the sophomore/junior lot with the Science Center’s. According to Director of Facilities Patrick Zarrick, this section should be paved before the current school year expires.

Zarrick said that once the entire parking complex is completed, SLUH will have roughly 670 spaces in the new student lot, not including handicapped spaces. The parking complex will be used jointly with the Science Center; however, SLUH students will not be able to park on the Science Center’s primary lot.

Access to Berthold from Macklind will no longer be available, and Zarrick said that there are plans to place a gate at the west end of the Berthold parking lot. This gate will be used only in “overflow? situations, when many people want to leave the lot at one time, and will not be used by SLUH students on a daily basis.

To increase safety for both drivers and pedestrians in the new parking area, a circulator will be placed where the segment of Berthold currently being torn up lies. According to Zarrick, the circulator is a “Hershey’s kiss? shaped concrete median which will regulate the flow of traffic coming west on Berthold. Science Center patrons will drive along the north side of the circulator and into the Science Center’s lots, while SLUH students will continue along the circulator and into the parking lots south of Berthold.

Students will no longer exit the campus by driving up the SLUH/Science Center driveway to Oakland Avenue; instead, Director of Security Charlie Clark has recommended that students exit the parking lot to the south, via East Avenue, taking Wise Avenue west to Macklind Avenue. Zarrick said that the school will soon lobby the city’s aldermen for the placement of a stop sign at the intersection of Wise and Macklind. Zarrick said that both the neighboring Forest Park Community College and the Humane Society have been “very supportive? of the idea.

The gate that currently stands on Berthold Avenue near the southwest corner of the football stadium by the concession stand will be replaced with a more ornate design.

“(The gate) will clearly say, ‘this is the entrance to St. Louis U. High,’? Zarrick said. The administration has been meeting with architects this week to review possible designs for the gate.

Additionally, a wrought-iron fence will replace the current chain-link one lining the southern edge of the football stadium, “to unite the campus’s architecture,? Zarrick said.

The segment of Berthold east of this new entrance gate will be turned into a four-lane road. A walkway will be installed along the street’s southern edge for pedestrians, and a turnaround will be added at the eastern end of this segment of road, in front of the entrance to the gymnasium. This turnaround will replace the faculty lot off of Oakland Avenue as the school’s primary pick-up and drop-off area.

The senior parking lot, which sits across Berthold from the gym, will be demolished and replaced with a recreational “green space,? which Zarrick said will be the equivalent of 1.5-2 practice fields. Zarrick added that there is some debate over whether the green space should be one continuous field or should be terraced.

Finally, as an added security measure, Zarrick said that a 16-foot high fence will “probably? be placed along the campus’s southern perimeter behind the soccer and baseball stadiums.

Zarrick said that at this time, no cost figures are available for this summer’s developments, which should all be completed before school resumes on August 21, largely because the school is currently in the process of receiving bids from various contracting companies.

Published: June 14, 2006 | By: Jim Santel | Categories: News Section, Students
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