WATCHDOG REPORTS: New MUSC garage will be full before it opens

Workers building a new 1,500-space parking garage the Medical University of South Carolina are rushing to complete the job by late October, but that won’t be soon enough to accommodate the throngs of faculty and students returning for fall semester this month.

On a typical day, some 11,000 faculty, 2,500 students and thousands of patients converge on the hospital complex, though not all of them drive. When the new garage opens, the hospital will have a total of about 9,500 spaces.

Melinda Anderson, the hospital’s parking administrator, said she’s come up about 200 spaces short most weekdays this summer. She expects that deficit to double to about 400 spaces until the garage comes online.

Manhattan Construction Company is the lead firm on the $40 million garage project, which began in March 2007.

University officials had planned to have the garage open in conjunction with the new hospital, Ashley Tower, but the hospital was completed early and the garage was not yet finished.

Read more about how the university plans to deal with the temporary parking crunch in tomorrow’s Post and Courier.