Parking deck demolition underway

Aug. 9—Demolition of the parking deck owned by the city of Dalton next to the Burr Performing Arts Park is underway.

City of Dalton Communications Director Bruce Frazier said the work is expected to take most of August. He said at this time officials do not anticipate having to close any streets due to the work.

The City Council voted in July to accept a $386,080 contract with D.H. Griffin Wrecking of Ellenwood to tear down the single-level parking deck.

The city closed the parking deck, which is at the intersection of Crawford and Hamilton streets, two months ago after a Public Works employee who was part of a crew doing routine maintenance on the deck noticed problems with one of the beams. The parking lot beneath the deck is also closed.

A report by Wallace Design Collective, an Atlanta engineering firm, detailed numerous issues with the parking deck including shearing cracks on one of the beams, spalling of the concrete and water damage to connecting cables. The report said there was evidence that loads exceeding capacity had been placed on the deck. City officials and downtown business people have said it was once common for out-of-town groups to park their buses on the deck.

The staff recommendation was to tear down the parking deck rather than rebuild.

"The deck was built in the early 1980s to the standards that were in place then," City Administrator Andrew Parker told City Council members at a July meeting. "But I've had an engineer tell me that the day that deck was completed it would not meet today's safety standards."

"This will give us the opportunity to build a better, ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)-compliant deck," Parker said at that time. "That upper level (above the parking lot) is rarely used because it is difficult even for an able-bodied person to use those stairs."

Parker told the council members it would cost an estimated $1.3 million to build a single-level deck, and $2.1 million to build a double-level deck, though he cautioned those estimates were tentative because of inflation.

The council members have said they want to build a new parking deck but said they would have to identify a funding source.