Fans cheering for the Lions at Homecoming on Saturday will see the very beginnings of Columbia’s newest athletics complex, while Inwood residents stand by for more construction roadblocks and traffic delays.
Construction began last spring on the Campbell Sports Center, a 48,000-square-foot building that will house strength-training facilities, coaches’ offices, and a student-athlete study center.
The bulk of the construction work has been the installation of foundations in the southeast corner of Baker Field at 218th Street and Broadway, according to Joe Ienuso, executive vice president for facilities. The corner was previously an entrance to the athletic complex, but is now fenced off.
Now in its fifth month of an approximately 15-month-long process, the Campbell Sports Center is expected to open next year just in time for the vast majority of the year’s athletic contests and practices, Ienuso said.
On Tuesday, construction work extended into 218th Street between Park Terrace East and Broadway and will likely block the westbound lanes for up to five months. As a result, the eastbound parking lane and the eastbound driving lanes have been split to accommodate two-way traffic.
Inwood residents said they are already irked by the reconfigured street, which has eliminated parking on that block.
Resident Susan Tobiason walks by the construction site daily on her way to work at the Allen Pavilion in New York–Presbyterian Hospital.
“There’s no space and there’s no signs. You don’t know where to walk,” she said. She added that the curbs, seven or eight inches off the street level, are dangerous.
Tobiason said that the narrowed street has made driving more complicated as well. “I was driving home last night and I had to drive all over the neighborhood to get into 218th,” she said. “There’s only one lane each way, and you’re not sure if you’re going the right way.”
The elimination of parking spaces on 218th Street has also posed a difficulty for Park Terrace Deli, a market directly opposite the construction.
Amar Haimed, who works in the deli, said it’s harder for trucks to make their deliveries and for shoppers to park. With the parking lane eliminated, Haimed said he has seen some motorists drive up onto the sidewalk.
“It’s very dangerous,” Haimed said. “This street is just too narrow for big trucks.”
University officials say they have worked to minimize as many of the disruptions as they can.
“Although contractors carefully stage construction activities to minimize disruption to the surrounding community, the nature of construction work is such that some disruptions will occur,” Ienuso said in a statement. “Protection measures such as construction fencing, sidewalk sheds, and changes in traffic patterns are required by city regulations and help ensure the safety of the public.”
Columbia has tried to court the community’s favor by keeping the track and the Dick Savitt Tennis Center open longer. On Sept. 24, Baker Field hosted the University’s first Northern Manhattan Appreciation Day, admitting Washington Heights and Inwood residents into the football game for free.
The designs for Boathouse Marsh, the waterfront park space being built at 218 Street and Indian Road, have also been completed but the project is in a pre-construction phase, Ienuso said.
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