Parking Deck Update - Demolition Mostly Done, Work Continues
Wednesday, August 17th, 2022
The downtown parking deck that once stood adjacent to Burr Park at the intersection of Hamilton Street and Crawford Street is now mostly gone. Work to demolish the deck is nearing completion with work to remove the debris and clear the way for street level parking on the site still to come. The planning work to determine the size and scope of a construction project to replace the deck with a new one is underway.
Caption: A large backhoe sits on the site where the downtown parking deck once stood behind the Landmark Building.
On Wednesday, Public Works Department director Chad Townsend told a meeting of the Downtown Development Authority that he anticipates work to clear the site and re-open the street level parking lot behind the Landmark Building will be completed by Labor Day. The asphalt lot was the ground level of the old parking deck structure. Once the Public Works Department is done with work to clear the site, there will be few signs of the old deck. One permanent reminder will be a concrete pillar standing next to the concessions building at Burr Park. That pillar will be repurposed as a marquee sign for the park.
On Tuesday, Mayor David Pennington and city administrator Andrew Parker were asked about the plan for replacing the deck after Pennington gave a speech at the Rotary Club of Dalton.
"We're trying to work with the Downtown Dalton Development Authority on that," Pennington said. "I think there's things they can do with that."
"We’re working with the DDDA to put together a plan, and we’ve also been in touch with the University of Georgia and they’ve given us some examples of communities that have built decks recently in Athens and Braselton where they’ve even incorporated potentially a retail strip on the bottom floor," Parker said. "Before we take the plunge and build a new deck we want to develop the best plan for downtown."
"I'm happy to say we have a parking problem down again (because that means downtown is thriving), especially with the opening of Jefferson’s and hopefully Mr. Caperton will have a project in the (old Dalton) Depot soon as well," Parker continued. "So it’s going to be essential that we restore a multilevel parking deck there soon."
City officials plan to visit the parking deck projects in Athens and Braselton soon to study the results and work on plans for a new structure in Dalton.
The parking deck was closed to the public on June 10th after a routine inspection found that a support beam appeared to be deteriorating. After consulting with structural engineers, it was determined that either a repair of the structure or demolition of the structure would be needed. Further study found that repairing the structure would cost almost as much as the parking deck was worth, and the City Council voted July 14th to tear it down. Preparation work on the site began July 19th, with demotion work beginning in earnest earlier this month. Public Works Department officials said at the time that the work would take most of August to complete.
Below: Few signs remain that the parking deck once stood near Depot Street downtown
