New garage to rise this spring

Seven-story, 1,440-space garage will accommodate recent campus growth

Excavation and foundation work for a new campus garage has gone on for months, largely hidden behind the green fence that runs along Plantation Street just past Biotech Five. But that will soon change.

In early April, a crane will arrive on the site to begin placing the massive precast sections of concrete that will frame the 1,440-space garage being built to accommodate the Albert Sherman Center (ASC) and the general growth of the campus in recent years.

“When they start placing the concrete sections, it will go up very fast,” said John Baker, associate vice chancellor of facilities management, who is overseeing the ASC project. “We expect the garage to be operational in December of this year.”

The new garage will be seven stories tall, although given the slope of the site, only five stories will be visible from Plantation Street. A total of 1,167 sections of precast concrete, formed into various beams, columns and supporting structures, will be used to build the garage.

The garage will be available for students, staff and faculty only; no patient or visitor parking will be allowed. When completed, there will be regular shuttle service between the main campus and the garage. For those who prefer to walk, the new garage is approximately a quarter of a mile from the campus, or about a five- to six-minute walk. Current plans call for the new garage to be unreserved parking, with those now using the off-site shuttle lots redirected to park in the new facility.

The concrete elements for the garage will be fabricated by Dailey Precast of Shaftsbury, Vt., and trucked to the site. The same design and construction team working on the ASC, ARC/Architectural Resources Cambridge and Suffolk Construction, is also working on the garage.

In this video, Baker discusses some of the design aspects of the new garage and the current usage plan.

Related link on UMassMedNow:
Parking garage planned for newly acquired land