New Kensington has retained a structural engineer to assess the condition of the city’s 42-year-old downtown parking garage.
Edward Patton, owner of Patton Engineering, said his inspection will take three to four weeks to complete and cost the city around $10,000.
Patton said it will be the first time he’s inspected the garage, formally known as the Kensington Plaza Garage, located on Fourth Avenue at Seventh Street.
The garage was dedicated in December 1979, city Clerk Dennis Scarpiniti said. Its construction had faced criticism and hesitation, according to a Dec. 4, 1979, report on the $2.4 million garage’s dedication in the Valley News Dispatch. Merchants, residents and officials attended the event.
The report said even the garage’s staunchest skeptics were “burying the hatchet and rallying behind the completed downtown parking garage.” An unnamed city official was quoted as saying, “There’s no use bickering anymore now, so let’s do the best we can.”
The garage and the development beneath it were heralded at the time as a sign of the city’s redevelopment and revitalization. Officials were predicting big and good things for the city in comments similar to those heard today as downtown buildings are being rehabilitated with new businesses opening within them.
Patton said his work will include taking core samples to check the strength of the garage’s concrete, visual inspections of the structure and identifying deficiencies that need to be addressed. His report will cover the garage’s overall condition and give recommendations.
The garage is open, but much of it is unused. Use of the garage declined after the nearby Citizens General Hospital closed in 2000, city Engineer Tony Males said.
“The garage needs some work,” Males said.
To the untrained eye, the garage can be described as dark, dirty and deteriorated.
The entrance to a stairwell is blocked off on the first floor. Steps and metal in stairwells are rusted. Grass was seen growing in crumbled concrete on the top level, where lines for parking spaces — not needed on a recent day when not one car was parked there — have nearly faded away.
Males said the last structural assessment of the garage was done more than 20 years ago.
Males said the city is looking at applying for grants to pay for repairs. Patton’s report will help with that.
“They want to be able to see specifically what needs to be done and the cost estimates for that,” he said.