Maintenance issues are ongoing at the city's Madison Street parking garage, and city staff is waiting for direction from members of the Jefferson City Council on how to proceed with any needed repairs.
At a May 22 meeting of the Public Works and Planning Committee, Public Works Director Matt Morasch told committee members of "maintenance issues" with the Madison Street parking garage. Morasch said he was looking for some direction from the committee on whether to move forward with repairs or hold off, mainly because of the possibility of the city constructing a second downtown parking garage.
Morasch said some concrete has fallen onto vehicles parked in the garage, which costs the city, though minimally, for vehicle repairs. During the meeting, Morasch specified that one vehicle hit belonged to Central Bank President Sam Cook.
At that meeting, committee members said regardless of discussions about a possible new garage, the city should take care of what it already has, and 3rd Ward Councilman Bob Scrivner requested additional information about cost estimates for repairs.
Operations Division Director Britt Smith said the issues are not uncommon for an older structure - the garage was originally built in the 1960s and rebuilt in the 1980s, with renovations to the main garage and a section being added on.
"None of (the issues) would be considered "the building's going to fall down' or anything like that," Smith said. "They're not catastrophic; there's not an urgency."
Smith said many of the issues are simply because of the way the garage was built, noting that if the city were building a garage today, it would be totally different. The reason concrete has begun to fall is because of steel beams that are rusting and corroding, he said. When the garage was built, steel beams were used for the concrete to be poured onto, which is no longer done when constructing a garage, Smith said.
"Steel in garages in Missouri is not the best because of rusting," Smith said. "Once it starts, it's hard to get it well."
Smith said some concrete flooring needs to replaced, which can be difficult to do when the garage is being used, especially during the legislative session when the garage is typically full. Because the city has been considering constructing a new garage, Smith said the staff thought they could wait until a new garage was built, which would give them a place to relocate customers of the current garage while they performed repairs.
"Well, we've kind of still been waiting for that," Smith said. "If we know we're not going to get a second garage, then we can make a plan and work accordingly."
Smith said the main issue for the city has simply been trying to lessen the inconvenience to customers at the garage, because some of the steel needs to be blasted, which is not something they'd want to do around vehicles.
During the May 22 meeting, one committee member suggested the city look into tearing down the existing garage and rebuilding on the same lot, allowing for more levels to accommodate more parking. While that is one possibility, Smith said it raises the question of where to put the city's current garage customers in the meantime, though he noted it would help address some issues at the garage.
"If I was building a new garage today, would it look like that one? Absolutely not," Smith said. "It's a terribly inefficient design, by today's standards."
Smith said the way the garage is built, using ramps, eliminates some parking availability and the existing spots are sometimes too narrow for larger vehicles. The city would build a structure entirely of concrete, eliminating the steel beams and resulting corrosion, he said, and the lighting would be different to look for more energy efficiency, which wasn't a huge concern when the garage was first built.
Smith said the parking division sets aside about $300,000 for maintenance each year and hasn't used the entire budgeted amount in the past few years. Smith did not have cost estimates readily available, but will have estimates to report to the committee when the discussion continues, which is likely to be later this month.