Council weighs options for Water St. parking deck | News

WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – Shortly after the City of Wilmington took over the Water Street parking deck, it closed off one of the entrances. At least one council member says the building is an eyesore on downtown Wilmington.

Andrews Consulting Engineers provided some options for council – all of them call for removing the closed Grace Street ramp. That's not the only problem, though.

The group pointed out other structural concerns like rust stains marking spots where steel no longer supports anything. A representative of the company explained to council members Monday that, in some cases, the steel expands and forces concrete to fall off the deck.

The main question facing city council is whether or not the deck will be repaired or demolished. The cost of tearing down the upper deck and surrounding ramps would cost an estimated $625,000.

The price of repairs to keep the deck open for 10 years comes to $730,000. The private engineer advised council that waiting longer for repairs could lead to higher costs.

Council member Laura Padgett would like to see more green spaces or small developments, instead of the deck. But first, she just wants to see the management group clean it up.

"Hopefully with Lanier reporting to us, we can insist that they do some cleaning up there because it's not a pleasant place to be," explained Padgett. "In fact, it's very depressing. Why would we want that on our riverfront?"

Padgett said city council tried once before to work with developers for some private development, but it didn't work. This time, she hopes to have a better plan to move forward.

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