Published: November 25, 2008 11:41 pm            

PARKING GARAGE COLLAPSE: Looking for answers

City officials sorting out impact

The signs of deterioration were everywhere: Blue protective tarps, torn yellow caution tape, rusted steel beams and cracked concrete.

But Johnstown officials say they believed the 37-year-old Washington Street parking garage remained structurally sound and safe for public use.

That all changed early Tuesday, when portions of the second and third floors collapsed.









While emergency responders believe no one was injured, the incident left a number of damaged vehicles inside a still-unstable building that officials now must rush to demolish.

“It certainly isn’t safe,” city fire Chief Anthony Kovacic said.

The garage gave way around 2:30 a.m.

Had it happened during normal business hours, the result could have been catastrophic.

About 130 commuters have monthly parking permits for the garage, not to mention parking meters on the ground level.

There would be even more occupied spaces – the garage has room for 334 – if not for structural concerns that closed the facility’s top three floors in August 2003.

At the time, officials were alarmed by sagging floors and failing concrete. A consultant’s report confirmed pervasive problems.

But that same report did not say city leaders should shut the entire garage, instead recommending that “the areas of the garage that are closed remain so” until repairs were completed.

In a financially distressed city with no spare cash, those repairs never happened. And while City Council in 2005 authorized the solicitation of bids for demolition, that project did not move forward.

City Manager Curt Davis on Tuesday said that, even after a “walk through” with parking-garage experts within the last six months, he was not warned of any potential for collapse.

“I certainly didn’t have anybody say to us, ‘Hey, I think this is dangerous,’ ” Davis said.

Due to the now-obvious danger of a garage that’s missing parts of two lower floors, officials later Tuesday still were unable to quantify the full extent of the damage.

Kovacic said a full investigation is impossible until the structure is temporarily stabilized.

There were an estimated 19 vehicles inside. Kovacic said some may be in good condition, depending on where they were parked.

Five of the vehicles are privately owned.

And 14 are in the custody of the Cambria County District Attorney’s office, having been confiscated in drug investigations and stored in the garage.

District Attorney Patrick Kiniry on Tuesday was operating the assumption that the cars had been destroyed.

“We were in the (legal) process of having them forfeited to the county,” Kiniry said.

“They would have eventually been sold, with the money from the sale used for such things as drug-education programs or equipment used in drug investigations.”

He is consulting with county solicitors on whether the county had what is termed an “insurable interest” in the vehicles.

“If so, we can make a claim for the losses,” he said.

The incident had an impact beyond the structure itself:

• Those with monthly parking permits for Washington Street garage will be moved to either the city’s Main Street East garage or the ITC garage at Vine and Walnut streets, Davis said.

• The garage’s instability kept portions of Locust and Washington streets closed Tuesday.

• The city’s parking bureau and sewage department, which had operated on the garage’s bottom level, have been forced to relocate.

The parking office is moving to City Hall, while sewage staff will work from Greater Johnstown Water Authority’s office at 640 Franklin St.

•  Officials ordered two Market Street businesses – Beginnings Inc. and Blaine Boring’s Chocolates – to shut down in the aftermath of the collapse.

Both are located in a one-story building that stands just inches away from the garage.

“In looking at the condition of the parking garage, we felt it best that they close,” Kovacic said.

The fire chief added that the much larger Verizon building on the other side of the garage has been deemed safe for occupancy.

Officials said they expect the streets and the two affected businesses to remain shut until the garage is demolished.

That job is expected to get started “as quickly as possible,” Davis said, adding that three contractors visited the site Tuesday and will proceed under an emergency plan.

“It basically allows us to move forward with the demolition immediately without going through the bidding procedure,” Davis said.

Costs are uncertain at this point; the 2004 consultant’s report estimated that razing the structure could cost $390,000.

Davis said insurance could help cover the demolition job and pay for damaged vehicles.

If city officials must come up with a large amount of cash, it is not clear where they would find that money. But after Tuesday’s events, they have no choice in the matter.

“It’s unfortunate that we didn’t deal with it before,” city Councilman Jack Williams said.

“Now we have to deal with it.”

        

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