Demolition Of Downtown Deck Begins
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2022
The demolition of the downtown Dalton parking deck on Hamilton Street continued in earnest on Tuesday afternoon with the arrival of a large crane to support large portions of the structure as it is taken down. Work to prepare the site for demolition began in mid-July after the City Council voted to tear the deck down after it was found to be structurally unsound.
Caption: A large crane is parked on Depot Street next to the downtown parking deck which is being demolished.
The parking deck has been closed to the public since June 10th. A routine inspection of the structure which stands next to Burr Park at the intersection of Crawford Street and Hamilton Street found a support beam that 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 demolish the deck. Preparation work on the site began July 19th, the day after the council voted to approve the contract. Tuesday's arrival of a large crane and work to start taking down sections of the structure is the first of the demolition work easily seen by the public.
"We wanted to demo it and go ahead and get it on the ground as quickly as possible just for the safety issues as well as getting the bottom portion of the deck back open for the public and the businesses downtown," Public Works director Chad Townsend said last month. "We're still receiving reconstruction estimates for construction of a new deck, and we're even looking at possibly expanding a little on what was there. depending on the pricing that comes back."
The work to remove the parking deck is expected to take most of August.
Below: Piles of debris underneath the parking deck show some of the site work that has taken place over the past few weeks as crews prepared to demolish the structure. Workers spent Tuesday afternoon positioning the crane to begin removal of large portions of the parking deck.
