Recent bad weather conditions have slowed progress on the new NIU parking lot under construction south of Founder’s Memorial Library, but the lot now is available for faculty and staff parking.

NIU Parking Division Manager Lynn Fraser said efforts to finish installation of the lot’s temporary lighting and gravel base should be completed “any day now,” even though the lot was scheduled for completion yesterday.

Fraser said permanent lighting fixtures and a paved surface for the 80-space, blue-coded lot 36 will be installed in the spring.

“The new lot will help the blue-space parking problem,” Fraser said, “but it won’t affect the university’s overall parking problem.”

Fraser said drivers can enter and exit lot 36 from Carroll Ave.

Fraser said the cost of gravel laid in lot 36 is less than originally estimated, but the project’s total price, which will be paid by the parking division’s general funds, cannot be determined until paving is completed.

James Harder, vice president for business and operations, said construction costs for a regular lot are between $1,500-$2,000 per space.

NIU acquired the land south of the library from the Wesley Foundation last September and tore down four houses on the property for the lot’s construction.

The new lot is part of a plan to add as many as 1,200 parking spaces to NIU’s campus by using bond revenue as a payment for purchase and construction costs.

Fraser said some discussion has been made concerning the expansion of parking lots O, P and W some time in the fall of 1988 and to expand lot S the following year.

“Those expansions are only in the planning stages,” she said.