By Gintautas Dumcius
Special to the Reporter

In a move sure to have campus-wide ramifications when students return in September, UMass-Boston last week quietly closed its crumbling garage, ending nearly three decades' worth of attempted repairs outpaced by the garage's steady deterioration.

UMass officials last Wednesday sent out campus-wide e-mails to staff and faculty informing them of the shuttering of the 1,560-car garage, a move which comes amid the closure of several Big Dig tunnels after ceiling panels weighing several tons fell and killed a Jamaica Plain woman, shaking public confidence in the $14.6 billion Central Artery project.

"For all intents and purposes, it's permanently closed," said Andrew O'Brien, deputy chancellor.

Officials have spent the last year shoring up supports and removing loose concrete to the tune of $1 million, having to close off 600 spaces. With the complete closure, the university could be losing up to $10,000 a day in parking fees, which in past years has been used to fund maintenance of the garage and other campus operations.

Monthly inspections have shown the Dorchester campus's 32 year-old garage &endash; which serves as the sub-structural foundation holding up five of campus's six administrative and academic buildings &endash; remains safe, officials say.

And while the Big Dig tunnel collapse was somewhat of a factor, the closure was discussed in meetings for over a year, culminating in a meeting last week at the UMass president's office downtown between Chancellor Michael Collins, UMass President Jack Wilson, and state Division of Capital Asset Management head David Perini.

"We would be exactly where we are today even if the whole Big Dig issue hadn't mushroomed, vividly and tragically," said Robert Connolly, spokesman for the UMass president's office.

The meeting came a month after preliminary reports from an engineering study from Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger showed it would cost nearly $180 million to rehabilitate the two-level substructure as a parking garage. It has deteriorated since the 1980s due to road salt brought in by vehicles, shoddy construction, and the saltwater atmosphere of Dorchester Bay.

That would, in effect, be equivalent to five to six years worth of capital funding for the entire UMass system from the state Legislature, according to Connolly, since they recieve, on average, $20 to 30 million a year.

"We were on our own course where the engineering study told the tale," Connolly said.

Instead of a costly rehabilitation, a $25 million stabilization project has been proposed, aimed at keeping the garage as a foundation by continuing to shore up the supports, as officials seek to create a strategic plan for the academic year and beyond.

The garage's decline is largely thought to be caused by substructure's shoddy construction, which ultimately led to a state construction scandal, the conviction and jailing of two state senators, and the special Ward Commission aimed at documenting the fraud in the late 1970s.

For most students, professors, and university workers, it'll largely be first-come, first-serve in the fall, with the elimination of reserved space.

The university plans to contract off-site lots along Mt. Vernon Street, such as the Bayside Expo Center, lots by St. Christopher's, and the John W. McCormack elementary school; urge individuals to take the T or park in the campus' four outside lots and the new campus center's garage; and possibly create additional parking spaces on campus.

The addition of another garage elsewhere on campus is still in the planning stages after almost two years, officials said.

Collins is also "intrigued" by the idea of a valet service, contracted through parking companies, to maximize space in the north and south parking lots, O'Brien said.

For now, the closure affects only 3,000 students here for summer courses, and there are 1,430 parking spots still available on campus.

"It is a minor inconvenience, simply because a lot of students drive," said Fred Woodard, a music teacher for Boston Public Schools, who is taking a summer instruction class on playing the bass.

"I guess they're doing the best they can with outside parking but they could have timed it a little better, or perhaps phased out the two levels," he said as he parked Monday morning in the full lot behind the Clark Athletic Center. It may be slow now but in the fall, parking could get chaotic fast with the garage out of the picture, professors and students say, since September usually brings on a parking crunch, before dying down once the semester gets underway.

"It's going to affect the whole campus," said Carol DeSouza, the university's disabled regulations compliance officer and assistant to the dean of the Graduate College of Education. "Everybody's going to have to build time into their schedules to make sure this works."

The twenty-four spaces for the handicapped that were lost when the garage closed will be replaced through painting new signs onto the available lots and creating new spaces elsewhere on campus, she said.

During the fall and spring semesters, between 3,100 to 3,500 cars park on the campus each day, though not for the entire day, officials add.

Some students and staff are already planning to make extra time in their morning commute to find parking.

"We'll see how things go," said Martina Danailova, a 22-year-old graduate student working in Student Affairs.

She might start using public transportation, she said, enabling her to save money on parking, which currently costs a flat rate of six dollars.

"I think September is going to be an extremely challenging and trying time," said Donna Neal, associate director of the Student Life office, adding she may try trading in her van for her motorcycle. "That's easy to park," she said.

"I haven't parked inside the building for ten years because of what I've seen and what I've observed," said Jack Looney, an earth sciences professor, referring to the deterioration of the garage.

Officials advised anyone coming to campus with questions on parking to call 617-287-4000.