Coliseum parking lot delayed & on time

FORT WAYNE, IND. (WANE) - Johnny Appleseed Festival will be here in just about a month, starting on September 19; but a project officials hoped would be finished by then won't be done.

"The weather certainly this last week hasn't helped us and so we're about 2 to 3 weeks behind where we had hoped to be,” said Coliseum General Manager Randy Brown.

Brown is talking about the construction for the 800 additional parking spaces at the Coliseum . It’s largely thanks to the demolition of Memorial Stadium. Once completed, the Coliseum will boast a total of roughly 5,500 public parking spaces.

While the 2 to 3 week shortfall is a delay, the project actually isn't behind schedule.

"It was an aggressive schedule looking at the Appleseed festival but the overall project in construction documents had the parking lot project being done by the fall. Clearly we're on track for that,” Brown said.

Once completed, the parking lot will boast a lot more green as far as both the color, and the environmental push. The lot will feature wider lanes, more trees, environmentally-friendly lights, and one of the area's first "stormceptors"

"It removes the oil and pollutants from the parking lot. Rather than it flowing right to the river, they're retained in a pit in the stormceptor and then we put that out later and that's going to be a nice feature that we're not just improving our property but we're also doing some things to improve the water quality,” Brown said.

The total project comes in at about $1.3 million.

Meanwhile, Coliseum leaders expect the $5 million expo hall renovation to be done by October.