Emma Standen

Construction sites have popped up all over Nathan Campus, puzzling students, disrupting foot-traffic, and impacting accessibility. There are two construction sites on-going, they are N81 near the Uni Bar and N82 at the Arrivals Area.

Development

N81, The Technical Annex is set for completion later this year and will provide research and classroom space dedicated to soil-based research. Stand-out features of this new building will be thew rooftop green houses, temperature-controlled rooms, and a Soils Teaching Lab.

New Arrivals building, N82, once built will be 22,000sqm and 9 stories tall and will be completed in 2026. The building has been developed to accommodate students from Mount Gravatt campus, which is set for closure in 2026. The building will feature an impressive central outdoor atrium with collaborative study spaces. Also, exciting news! There will be space for a new cafe on the ground floor.

The Mt Gravatt closure comes after the conclusion of a review which found that the aging infrastructure was no longer fit for purpose.

For more information, please visit Nathan Master Plan (griffith.edu.au).

Limitations

The N82 construction site has obstructed foot-traffic on campus, increasing travel time from the bus stops on Ring Road to Campus Heart. The detour path around the construction site poses many accessibility issues, the main issue being a lack of tactile paving. Tactile paving is the textured tiles found along footpaths and before stair and are used by visually impaired people to navigate. Without tactile paving along this path, Campus Heart will be inaccessible to visually impaired students.

This issue will be especially apparent during the chaos of orientation week.

Directional signage for an accessible path to Campus Heart have been put up. However, this route also does not have tactile paving, leaving us questioning whether there are plans to install the tactile paving.

We made an inquiry to the SRC about the issue and was forwarded on to The Advocacy and Engagement Coordinator at Griffith. We are yet to hear a response on whether and when the tactile paving will be installed.