Construction on a new parking structure containing 1,750 spaces near the J Street entrance to Sacramento State will begin at the end of the spring semester, according to a Clark Pacific Corporation press release.

“We’ll break ground right after graduation in 2017,” said Terry Street, manager of the general contracting division at Clark Pacific. “We have suggested in our plan that we will have this complete by the winter semester in 2018 so that students can use the garage.”

The project is also set to include the construction of a new office building, which will house a campus welcome center and the University Transportation and Parking Services (UTAPS), which is currently in Folsom Hall.

Tony Lucas, the senior director of UTAPS, said that he is looking forward to the move.

“The current location is not ideal for new students, visitors and members of the campus community with questions regarding parking,” Lucas said. “I believe it is an essential move.”

Lucas said that the welcome center is intended to serve as an introduction to the campus.

“The concept is for this building to be collocated with the structure to provide a convenient and welcoming place for visitors to find information about Sacramento State,” Lucas said.

In between the structure and the welcoming center will be a plaza with tables. Lucas said he hopes that student activities will be able to take place there.

“We envision having a place for food trucks to set-up to provide a festive and welcoming atmosphere,” Lucas said.

Clark Pacific is looking for Sac State students who are interested in construction internships to apply to work on the project.

“We probably have 25 Sac State grads currently employed. We’re also looking for young kids looking to get into construction,” Street said. “Part of it is a greedy recruiting tool.”

The parking in the structure is intended to replace spaces lost to the Student Housing II and Science II construction projects, according to campus architect Donovan Hillman.

Lucas said that parking congestion has been more of an issue this semester not only because of construction, but also because of increased enrollment and unit loads.

He advised students who are looking for parking to use Sac State’s parking app and park in parking lots farther away from campus — such as the Ramona Lot across Highway 50 — and take the Hornet Express Shuttle, at least for the first weeks of the semester.

Updated maps of where parking is available are posted on the UTAPS Facebook page in the mornings.

One student who has had trouble parking is Justin Caalim, a freshman who said it once took him two hours to find a space.

“The traffic getting here is difficult,” Caalim said. “If I get here later it’s even more stressful.”

Caalim, who said he takes Folsom Boulevard to get to school, hopes that when the new parking structure is completed, it will divert parking from the south end of the campus.

“I’ll be glad because it will be less traffic for me,” Caalim said.

Street said that the construction project is planned to take up minimal parking spaces.

“The job site itself is going to take away parking for the construction but the workers are not going to take away very much because we’re using precast concrete,” Street said.

Clark Pacific is working on the project with Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects, which built the campus bookstore.