The construction of the new parking garage will become a temporary inconvenience to Normal Road traffic.

Normal Road will be closed to all traffic until 6 p.m. today from Route 38 to Locust Street in connection with the parking garage construction.

The street will be closed so workers can disassemble the lifting crane that has been used to help in the construction of the NIU parking garage on the west side of the street.

Joel Maurer, DeKalb civil engineer, said the removal of the crane will not keep the street closed for more than one day.

Jack Kozumplik, Huskie Line route supervisor, said the disassembly will affect the Huskie Line bus routes 2, 6 and 7/9.

Kozumplik said route 2 goes through downtown DeKalb to Jewel/Osco on Sycamore Road, route 6 runs out to the DeKalb High School and route 7/9 goes to Sycamore and the engineering building.

The re-routes will take the buses west out of the bus turnaround onto Lucinda Avenue to Annie Glidden Road. From there the buses will proceed south to Lincoln Highway to start their routes there.

Bus riders wishing to board at the stop near Lincoln Terrace apartments will have to change their plans.

“We’ll have to stop on the corner of Lincoln Highway and Normal Road at the south side at the light,” Kozumplik said.

Carroll Avenue north of Rt. 38 will serve as the detour for local traffic with Locust Street made temporarily as a two-way east/west street for connection to Normal Road.

There will be no re-routes for the buses when coming back to campus and they will return to the normal routes as soon as the street is opened.

“Normal Road will open as a two-way following the successful removal of the lifting crane from the construction site,” Maurer said. “There is much construction left to take care of inside the structure that doesn’t need the crane.”