Exeter car park 'could collapse'

Nearly £1.5m of repairs will need to be made

Essential repairs to avoid the potential for the ‘complete collapse’ of an Exeter car park must be made.

The top four decks of the Cathedral and Quay Multi-Storey Car Park are currently closed after structural defects were discovered earlier this year.

Nearly £1.5m of repairs will need to be made to enable the decks of the car park to reopen again as if the car park become less capable in resisting loads, a collapse is likely to occur.

And while the car park, which has 355 spaces, would be closed for the essential works to take place, refurbishment work for the rest of the car park which currently ‘reflects poorly on the city and the council’ will be carried out.

Exeter City Council’s executive next Tuesday are recommended to ask the full council to approve a £1.5m budget for undertaking essential structural repairs at the car park, and a £2.4m budget for refurbishment to the rest of the car park.

The meeting will be told that if the structural repairs are not undertaken the fours decks which are currently closed will have to remain closed due to health and safety risk and that further decks will need to be closed until the entire car park has to be shut due to potential for structural failure.

David Bartram, Director, in his report, says that as well as providing the essential repairs, refurbishing the rest of the car park will substantially reduce anti-social behaviour and that it would provide an enhanced parking experience and could generate an additional £50,000 in revenue a year.

The report says:” The Council became aware of structural issues at Cathedral and Quay MSCP in late 2019. At this time a structural engineer was appointed. During the course of the subsequent survey it became apparent that a risk of collapse existed due to the presence of structural defects and the upper four decks of the car park were closed. The Council received the full structural survey report in February 2020.

“Failure of surface coatings due to a legacy of insufficient maintenance or planned replacement programmes of deck coatings has resulted in water seepage throughout the car park structure. The majority of the water ingress and resultant defects are on the top two decks, but continue through lower decks.

“In plain terms, if water is permitted to continue to enter the structure, more reinforcement will corrode. As more reinforcement corrodes the less capable the structure becomes in resisting loads, especially the live loads of vehicle traffic. When loading exceeds remaining structural capability, collapse is likely to occur.

“As a result of the concerns raised by the structural engineer, the top four decks of the car park have been closed, which is impacting on the income potential of this asset as well as having a detrimental impact on local businesses and activities.”

To solve this, Mr Bartram says that deck coatings to decks showing signs of water ingress or structural damage will have to be removed, drainage improvements undertaken to upper decks, damaged concrete to be removed and replaced and any further structural issues found during the course of the works to be rectified.

He added: “Initial assessment of the processes and works involved indicate that it will not be feasible to reopen the decks currently closed off within this car park until at least late 2020, but possibly 2021.”

His second recommendation would see a refurbishment of the car park to bring it to the same level as John Lewis car park and an investment in security equipment to upgrade the car park made.

He added: “Unfortunately the condition of the car park tends to underwhelm first time visitors and reflects poorly on the city and the Council. Despite previous lighting upgrades the site is not well lit and this, combined with other anti-social issues, can give the impression of the car park being unsafe and threatening. The poor lighting also detracts from the current CCTV coverage.

“Anti-social issues occur mainly during the evenings and include, graffiti; vandalism to parking equipment, lights and lifts; rough sleepers; drug use; under-age drinking; skateboarding and youths congregating and being noisy; young drivers revving engines and playing loud music. These behaviours can deter genuine customers and impact directly on the quality of life for those residents living nearby.

“Providing on-site security patrols is expensive if buying in, or unsustainable if redeploying internal staff from other duties.

“The solution is a system whereby there is a deterrent for vehicles to enter unless legitimately using the site for parking purposes, such as being shutter controlled and pay on entry/exit and access for pedestrians is restricted to those who have legitimately parked their car on site or hold a valid permit.

“A refurbishment of the site to bring it to the same level as John Lewis car park and an investment in the above parking/security equipment would upgrade the car park to the premium level where we currently charge a higher tariff and up until midnight.

“These changes, as well as attracting new customers could reasonably increase income at this site by up to £50,000 per annum and better reflect the prestige and ambition of the city to visitors.

“While the car park is closed to complete the essential works set out above, it would be an effective use of the down time at this asset to improve the overall user experience and seek to address long standing anti-social behaviour issues and avoid additional lengthy closure to the car park in the future.”

His report said that not proceeding with the recommendations could overtime lead to the upper decks remaining closed and the potential for the complete collapse of the car park, and that not refurbishing the remainder would leave the car park in stark contrast to the repaired upper decks.

The Executive are asked to recommend to full council, when they meet on Tuesday, April 21, to approve the £3.9m of works on the car park and to delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the section 151 Officer to give final approval to proceed once the Council’s financial position is secure.