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ONLINE 7-APR-00 North portion of Inner Loop closed by AALOK MEHTA THRESHER STAFF kijana knight/thresher College Way, between Autry Court and Alice Pratt Brown Hall, is open to two-way traffic because a portion of the Inner Loop is closed until early May due to construction. A portion of Laboratory Road, the north arm of the Inner Loop, closed Monday due to construction and is scheduled to be shut down for a month. The closed area runs from Alumni Drive - the road in front of Ley Student Center - to the stadium parking lot. The corresponding section of College Way, the south arm of the Inner Loop, has been made available for two-way traffic for the duration of the construction, scheduled to be completed by May 8, Campus Police Chief Bill Taylor said. Detours at the closed intersection will run along Alumni Drive and also toward Rice Boulevard. The road closing does not affect pedestrians. The construction will relocate utility lines for Alice Pratt Brown Hall and bring in utility lines for the new Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management building, Taylor said. The new building will be located between Alice Pratt Brown Hall and the Rice Memorial Center, along Laboratory Road. According to Taylor, shuttle stops will not be affected by the construction, but drivers will have to be cautious on the two-way portion of the Inner Loop. Parking in this section of the loop is no longer allowed. The Laboratory Road Lot will be closed during the construction. Commuters with permits for the lot may park in North Lot, Autry Court Lot and the Central Visitors Lot on a space-available basis, and the East Stadium Lot will be for overflow. Groundbreaking for the new Jones School will occur at the beginning of 2001. Construction is scheduled to take a year and a half. The new building will occupy what is currently the Laboratory Road Lot and part of the Central Visitors Lot. The building will also include an underground parking garage that should be completed by the end of this year. "There will be a two-story underground parking garage as part of the new Jones building - about 500 spots," Taylor said. "We'll eventually have more parking in the area than before." Utility lines for Alice Pratt Brown Hall have to be redirected so they are not disrupted by the construction of the new Jones School building. The utility lines for the new building must also be laid before groundbreaking can occur. - back - Search the Thresher pages: Enter your search terms: Copyright © 2000 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved. This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu