Parking garage fix to cost $1 million
By William Kibler, bkibler@altoonamirror.comArticle Photos
The Altoona Parking Authority has advertised for bids on $1.32 million worth of concrete repairs to its Transportation Center garage downtown.
Workers will fix deteriorated concrete on one-and-a-half of the garage's eight tilted slabs, which are arranged in a double-threaded helix.
The current work is the second of at least three phases in an estimated $4.6 million repair project on the 35-year-old garage, which officials hope will extend its life by 20 years.
Executive Director Patrick Miller said bids will be accepted until Dec. 12, with the authority planning to award a contract in late December or early January. Work should start in the spring and last about eight months.
The current phase calls for fixing the second slab encountered by drivers on the way up, followed by repairs on the outside half of the intersecting slab for cars on the way down.
Workers will use a jackhammer to expose stressed ''tendon'' cables, splicing them where they're snapped or corroded. They may remove and repour sections of the 5-inch-thick concrete. The tendons attach to plates at the ends of the slabs, helping to hold the concrete together.
Workers will shore up the concrete they're working on with posts resting on the floor below, to compensate for cutting the tendons.
The current project will bring the rehabilitation of the garage to about 40 percent completion, according to engineer Tim Boland of Gwin, Dobson & Foreman.
The authority will pay for 80 percent of the current phase with $1 million earmarked by U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster, R-9th District, in the ICETEA-LU highway bill in 2005.
The authority hopes to obtain a $207,000 line of credit from M&T to cover its local match requirement and will pay back the money with parking revenue. Miller said more revenue will be available after 2012 because of debt retirement.
The half of the first slab closest to 11th Avenue is directly above Parking Authority offices, which will force the staff to shift to unoccupied space on the other side of the center during the project, Miller said.
The outside section of the second slab closest to 10th Avenue is directly above Amtrak and Greyhound offices and the vaulted crossover between them. Miller said the authority will work to prevent disruption of the Amtrak and Greyhound routines.
Plans call for the garage to remain open during repairs, as it was for the earlier phase.
The authority spent $650,000 in 2005 to repair the first full slab past the garage entrance, above the 11th Avenue entrance and waiting room of the Transportation Center. The work was paid for with a state Infrastructure Development Grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development.
The city built the transportation center in 1984, tucking it into the ground floor of the garage. Boland said it was challenging, innovative and unique, and it's part of the reason it's worth spending the money to preserve the combination structure.
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guttertroll
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11-27-08 4:54 PM
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My bets on Lawruk and the outcome the same.
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KlausVR
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11-27-08 12:40 PM
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Albarano will get the bid and then, within the first year, it will start crumbling ... just like the building he built for Delta Health Systems in Lakemont and the great tourist attraction of INtown Altoona ... the 13th Street bridge to nowhere.
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