The EJ Gare Garage in June.
Reminder Publishing file photo
NORTHAMPTON — Discussions are underway in the city about a potential replacement for the EJ Gare Parking Garage, after Hoffman Architects and Engineers recommended demolishing the 37-year-old garage.
“Hoffman Architects’ determination based off the assessment that they did of the EJ Gare Garage is that it has what is colloquially called concrete cancer, and there has been water infiltration that has caused corrosion of the rebar and significant spalling of concrete,” explained Northampton Mayor Gina-Louise Sciarra during the City Council’s Oct. 15 meeting.
The architectural group told the city that a repair project would not be worth the investment because of severe structural deterioration and recommended two potential replacement paths forward.
The first would be to replace the existing garage with a surface parking lot costing between $3.3 and $3.8 million that would combine with the Armory Street lot, offering 198 total spaces in the area as a replacement and more than 200 fewer parking spots than the current garage at full capacity.
The other path the city could pursue after demolition would be to build an entirely new parking garage, estimated to cost the city $18-$33 million. If the city decides to rebuild a new parking garage, one funding option would be a debt exclusion vote and a potential increase in property taxes.
Another potential funding option would be for the city to issue a request for proposals to develop the site, requiring any design to include a minimum number of spaces for public use and to retain the skywalk connecting the existing garage to Thornes Marketplace.
Central Services Director Angie Gregory reiterated during the meeting that Hoffman Architects does not recommend repairing the garage because the endeavor is impractical. Repair would offer no real return on investment, as it would not stop the interior degradation of the materials stemming from the garage’s original construction and deterioration, and it would still require regular monitoring even after repair.
She added that, based on the recommendation, the city will approach the next steps as a multi-step process including updating the city’s parking study before eventually coming back to the council with new findings and recommendations on what path forward is best equipped to replace the current parking garage, whether that be a new surface lot or new garage.
Hoffman Architects and Engineers Director of Engineering Rob Marsoli further explained the specifics of the “cancer of the concrete” and why a full demolition of the EJ Gare garage is the recommended path forward for the city.
“We can with certainty say that there is severe alkali-silica reactivity present [around the structure]. It does have the name cancer of the concrete because of its inherent deterioration mechanism,” Marsoli said. “It’s really a reaction between a certain type of aggregate that was used. It reacts with the alkali in the cement in the presence of moisture. It happens over time, but when that reaction occurs, it creates a gel around the aggregate that slowly expands and creates this cracking and essentially destroys the concrete from the inside out.”
With no viable way to cure it, Marsoli and Hoffman Architects have recommended fully demolishing the garage. The city will discuss and debate whether to replace it with a new surface lot or a precast garage.
In the meantime, shoring and structural supports have been added to the lower levels of the existing garage structure, and Hoffman Architects will continue monthly monitoring to maintain the parking levels currently open in the garage. Sciarra added that shoring and monitoring are costing the city $9,000 a month, and the effort is only a temporary solution that will not halt further deterioration of the garage.
While the upper levels of the garage will remain closed as they have since March, the other floors and the bridge connecting the garage with Thornes Marketplace remain open. The city will continue to monitor the entire structure throughout the holiday season, the winter, and for as long as safely possible, as it discusses next steps. Hoffman Architects and Engineers will conduct the next monitoring session in November, and the council was invited to attend.
“If it’s not safe, it’s going to get closed, there’s no questions around that,” Sciarra noted, adding that the city hopes to keep the garage open in its current status as long as it safely can as they figure out the next steps.
Sciarra added the city will be exploring alternative parking options both in the short and long term in response to the current situation, mentioning ongoing discussions have begun with three private lots with the goal of adding space to the city’s parking inventory, some temporary and some more permanent. The city will also continue to explore other locations, including a shuttle service that could bring people who park in a lot just outside downtown into the city’s main hub.
Sciarra reiterated that next steps include continued monitoring of the structure, preparing safe parking alternatives, and coordinating with downtown businesses, including Thornes Marketplace, for full transparency throughout the process. Ultimately, the plan is to return to the City Council with a project budget, financing recommendations, and any required votes after an updated parking study determines whether the city will move toward a new lot or garage following the eventual demolition of the EJ Gare Parking Garage.
“This is a big challenge. There’s no sugarcoating it. This is a big thing, but we are working on options, and we will come up with a solution to it,” Sciarra added.
A full recording of the City Council’s Oct. 15 meeting and presentation of the status of the EJ Gare Parking Garage is available on the Northampton Government Video Archive YouTube channel.
