Grizzly gridiron expansion could cause campus gridlock

Gates will go up on a section of Campus Drive in December to accommodate construction on the east side of Washington-Grizzly Stadium, blocking traffic from circling around the back of the University of Montana for eight months. 

As of Dec. 15 only buses, Facilities Services employees, delivery persons and Public Safety vehicles will be allowed to drive on the portion of Campus Drive stretching around the stadium. 

The rest of the road will be open, but cars will have to access most of it from the entrance at Beckwith.

The deadline for completion of the project is Aug. 15, but the road might be opened by July, said Jerry Ballas, the project leader for planning and construction at Facilities Services.

“The contractor can’t start work over here until we close down Campus Drive,” he said.

Ballas said Facilities Services has been doing everything they can to ensure that at least ASUM Transportation will be able to pull their buses through.  The bus depot is located off the closed portion of the road, and it is an important throughway for bus routes.

“Everybody’s been working with us to figure out a way to keep the buses running through there,” said Nancy Wilson, director of ASUM Transportation.  “It’s going to slow our routes down, though.”

The construction will cause the temporary removal of at least 50 parking spots and complicate access to usable parking lots, which Wilson said might cause more people to leave their cars at home and ride the buses.

“To get to the parking lots, you’re going to have to go through Beckwith,” she said.  “Traffic’s going to be crazy there.”

The Office of Public Safety is also behind the construction fences, but Public Safety director Jim Lemcke said it would pose less of a problem for his officers’ response time.

“We’ve got our own gate out back,” he said.  “There shouldn’t be any slowdown in response.”

Lemcke noted that Public Safety cars could use sidewalks around campus if they really needed to, a luxury not afforded to those waiting at the intersection of Arthur and Beckwith.

Progress on the expansion itself will take a big step toward becoming a reality on Tuesday as three contractors meet with Facilities Services to decide who gets the job.

Two of the contractors, Swank Enterprises and Quality Construction, have worked with the University before. The third, Jackson Contractor Group, has employees who have worked on University projects, but will be new to the school if they get the bid.

A fourth contractor, Ames Construction, from Salt Lake City, was expected to be involved in the project because they constructed the north end zone stadium expansion. But due to other jobs to which they recently committed, they dropped out of the bidding.

“They picked up a couple of large projects,” Ballas said.  “Their business plan would not let them turn those down to pick this up.”

Having already reviewed the contractors’ applications and the résumés of the proposed site supervisors, Ballas said it is all down to money now.

“Our goal is to have a contractor identified by the end of the week,” he said. 

This will be the third renovation for the stadium, built in 1986, in the past 12 years.  After completion, the addition of 2,000 new seats will bring the capacity of the stadium to just over 25,000.

The expansion will provide about 700 new student seats by relocating some season ticket holders to the new area.  The student section will grow into the section next to it, wrapping further around the south side of the stadium to bring the total number of student seats to 4,000.

“It moves over one more entire section,” UM Athletics Director Jim O’Day said.  “We wanted (students) to be down low, and that’s where they wanted to be.”

The seats in the actual expansion itself are going fast, O’Day said.  All of the seats that will be located in the new club box crowning the section are gone, and there is a waiting list. 

By Jan. 15, when the sale of seats is opened to the public, O’Day said he believes few, if any, will be left.