The former BB&T Building at 201 W. Market St. in downtown Greensboro – now the Truist building – is getting its parking lot and underground parking deck repaired and renovated.
The county is also doing the same to the underground deck that serves the Old Guilford County Court House. That deck is underneath the governmental plaza – the Phill G. McDonald Plaza, as it’s officially known – the place where political rallies, community festivals and other celebrations are often held.
The Guilford County Board of Commissioners is expected to move the project forward at their Thursday, May 19 meeting. According to a staff report to the board, when it rains, leaks in the parking decks sometimes damage the finishes on vehicles parked there – and the runoff can even do greater damage to those vehicles.
Also, the long-term consequences of “water intrusion” can be even more disastrous, since it can shorten the life of the parking deck by eroding the steel beams and concrete supports of the decks and plaza.
The parking deck under the plaza is where the nine county commissioners have the very best permanent parking spots – and they often park some very nice cars there. Chairman of the Board of Commissioners Skip Alston, for instance, drives a sweet Corvette, while former Chairman Jeff Phillips drove a BMW to meetings when he was on the board.
The cost of repairing and renovating the lot under the plaza is expected to be about $561,000, while the work on the Truist parking deck is currently estimated to cost $70,700.
“Both the Plaza parking deck and the formerly BB&T parking deck are at a point in their lifecycle when refurbishment is needed,” the report from staff to the Board of Commissioners notes. “Currently we are experiencing several issues related to age and waterproofing failures that will begin to shorten the life of the deck structures. Water intrusion is allowing water to migrate through the deck structures and begin to corrode the reinforcing steel in the concrete members. Water intrusion also causes the concrete to spall, or flake off, because of cracks developed from the intrusion.”
A request for qualifications was sent out earlier this year and Guilford County received four qualification packages in response.
The Charlotte office of WGI, Inc. was selected as the most qualified bidder to handle the project, in large part because the company has conducted more than 2,000 parking deck or plaza refurbishment designs.
