Repository: UIHistories Project: UIS History 1969-1995 (Sangamon State Univ) [PAGE 34]

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Road. This petition was approved by the City of Springfield subject to an easement being granted for public access over the road. Over the years, the Perimeter Road has also been referred to as the "Ring Road.H In connection with the Brookens Library site development, the stone base of existing Shepherd Road was removed in the area adjacent to the library building and the level of the earth around the building was raised using borrow obtained by constructing the university pond. This earth fill was placed over that portion of Shepherd Road and subsequently landscaped. Crushed stone service drives had been provided on the north and south sides of the interim buildings at the time of construction. In May 1976, these service drives were paved with a 2" asphalt overlay. In June 1976, a temporary service and construction access road was installed north of the Brookens Library and around the Public Affairs Center construction site. This access road was later completely removed. During summer 1977, the Brookens service drive was constructed extending from Parking Lot "A" westwardly into the receiving area of Brookens Library and to the handicap/short term parking area. In summer 1978, plans and specifications were prepared to extend the ring road to the west, construct a principle entrance drive, two new parking lots "Cfl and "D," and two service drives to the auditorium and food service loading docks. Because the PAC building project was still under construction, it was decided to delay construction of the service drives until the building was nearly completed. The construction of the ring road extension and parking lots began in October 1978 and was substantially completed in November 1980. The two service drives were completed in October 1981. The master plan architect had originally planned Lot "C" and Lot "D" to be large lots identical to the first permanent lot constructed (now called Lot "B"). However, because of campus concerns about the long walking distance from parking areas to buildings, a decision was made to construct only the closer portions of two parking lots rather than one large lot. In addition, building two smaller lots rather than one large lot seemed to better balance the parking supply to both the Brookens Library and to the Public Affairs Center. In November 1980, the principle entrance drive and "teardrop" were completed. Roadways and parking for the three housing projects were constructed in connection with those projects. East court housing lot was constructed in the summer of 1980, the service drive extending west from Parking Lot "A" and into the area between buildings 120, 140, and 160 was constructed during the summer of 1990, and the parking area and associated roadways located adjacent to buildings 220,240,260,280, and the commons building were constructed during the summer of 1992. In summer 1988, a decision was made to construct the inner ring road from Parking Lot "D" to Shepherd Road on the south. This improvement would allow better vehicular circulation around the campus and would improve traffic congestion after auditorium events by improving egress to the south. This improvement was financed from operating revenues. As a change order to the inner ring road project, earth fill was added south of the road to establish a base for future parking areas west of the

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