Three campus parking lots will be shut down today to prepare for construction of a new parking garage and office building.

The Zone 1 lots 5079, 5137 and 5150, which are located north of East Sixth Street, will close permanently at 6 a.m.

Mike Delahanty, operation manager for Parking and Transportation Services, said students with parking permits will not be displaced.

He said parking spaces for permit holders are available in several lots, including the 7103 south of East Sixth Street and the 8109 south of Arizona Stadium. Those spaces were purposely not sold so that students would be able to use them once construction began.

"Students who park in the closed lots will all have a place to park," Delahanty said. "However, some people will complain because they're not as convenient."

Carl Gajdorus, senior architect at Facilities Design and Construction, said the parking garage will consist of six levels and contain 1,600 parking spaces for permit holders and visitors.

The structure will also include CatTran and Sun Tran bus stops.

Gajdorus called the garage a "multi-modal transportation facility" that will include a pedestrian plaza for people switching buses.

"People can come to campus on the city bus and jump right on the shuttle to get where they're going," he said.

The first half of parking spaces should be completed by August for use in the fall. The second half is slated for completion in spring 2003.

The 16,700-square foot office building will be occupied by PTS and should be complete by the fall. Construction for the entire project will cost more than $13 million.

Patrick Kass, director of PTS, said that despite the new facilities and the Tyndall Parking Garage relatively nearby, a significant traffic problem is not expected in the area.

He said the garage will have a "right turn in, right turn out" entrance and exit from East Sixth Street to the parking facility.

PTS is working with the city to have a traffic light installed this summer at the intersection of North Park Avenue and East Sixth Street.

"Having two garages relatively near each other, the traffic warrants that we have a traffic light there," he said.