Initial stages of construction for the Campus Parking structure are beginning today.

Pepper Construction of Chicago today will begin erecting a fence around the block of campus surrounded by Normal Road, Carroll Avenue, Locust Street and Lincoln Terrace.

Patricia Perkins, assistant to the vice president of Finance and Planning, said access to all of the streets will not be affected immediately.

“There will be times when a street might be blocked off for awhile,” Perkins said. “None of the streets will be blocked right away, though.”

Pepper was awarded the contract in March with a bid of $6,462,500, which was $1,009,400 under the estimated project budget.

Perkins said the first steps of the construction project will be to knock down the lighting fixtures and take the remaining trees out of the area. Major construction should begin soon after the fence is up.

“NIU workers already went through and relocated the trees that were able to be transplanted,” she said. “Not all of them were able to be relocated.

“There is a large oak tree we cut down. We are taking a big slice from it and giving it to Professor Paul Sorensen from biological sciences for him to use in his classes,” Perkins said.

A decision has not been about on the specific date the existing buildings will be demolished.

“There is a 10-day waiting period after we notify the EPA about the demolitions, before we start tearing down the buildings,” she said. “We don’t know a specific day yet, but the earliest will be the 26th.”

Access to the block, including the parking lot, will be cut off from now until the construction is completed.

Perkins said anyone who usually parks in that lot can park in any other blue lot on campus. “My recommendation would be to park in lot O (behind Grant Towers North) and to use the parking shuttle bus,” she said.

She said getting around campus will be a little difficult in the next two years, but students should be patient with the construction.

“We will end up with a vastly improved campus that everyone will be able to be proud of for a long time,” she said.