UPDATE: That 1×3 foot hole in the Baltimore Police parking garage leads to millions more in repairs
In August 2023, a slab of concrete fell at BPD’s fortress-like parking garage. The building’s flaws have since multiplied, delaying its reopening until late 2026 and sharply increasing costs.
Above: How it all began: the hole in the Police Headquarters parking garage. (General Services)
What started off as a modest hole in need of fixing at the Baltimore Police Department’s Headquarters Garage has swelled into a time-consuming project that’s eating up millions in repair costs.
The Board of Estimates yesterday agreed to allocate nearly $3.9 million – on top of the $8.3 million already authorized – to address a host of water seepage and structural problems plaguing the granite-clad garage, which stretches along the 600 block of East Baltimore Street like a medieval blockhouse.
The latest repairs will delay the reopening of the garage, planned for next month, to November 2026.
It was nearly two years ago, on August 24, 2023, that a slab section of decking surface failed and fell, puncturing a hole about a foot wide and three feet long on the fourth-floor deck.
The hole revealed the potential for “localized failures” throughout the garage, according to the Department of General Services, which manages city-owned buildings.
“It is not possible to predict which damaged areas will fail, when they fail, what will make them fail, and to what degree,” said a summary inspection report.
The garage was shut down, and in February 2024, the spending board handed Restoration East LLC an emergency (non-bid) $6.8 million contract to undertake repair work, only to have subsequent sounding tests by a structural consultant detect additional widespread “delamination,” or separation of concrete layers, due to moisture and stress.
• How a hole in the police department garage morphed into an $8.3 million non-bid project (6/5/24)
Because General Services had allocated a large portion of the emergency money to replace the building’s HVAC system and modernize the Police Department’s evidence control room under the garage, the agency was short of funds to address the emerging structural and safety issues.
As a result, the spending board approved last June a $1.5 million EWO (Extra Work Order) to allow Restoration East to undertake “full depth, overhead and vertical structural repairs” and replace the garage’s floor drainage system.
Two views of the physically imposing but structurally impaired Police Headquarters Parking Garage on East Baltimore Street. (Mark Reutter)
Latest Cost Overruns
Berke Attila, director of General Services, is now asking for another $3 million to replace beams and girders on the lower floors, install new steel columns and upgrade the previously poured floor coating to better protect the deck surface from future water infiltration.
Such measures “would be the most effective solution to ensure the longevity and safety of the garage,” Attila wrote to the board. In addition, General Services has spent (or will spend) about $848,000 on the project, including for consultant reports.
A 16-month delay and a 44% price hike.
All of which means that the garage will be closed for 16 more months and costs will exceed the original price tag by 44%.
The spending board yesterday approved the transfer of $3,861,452.01 in capital funds to the garage project, while deferring approval of the bulk of those funds to Restoration East. Comptroller Bill Henry asked for the delay so his office could review the project.
General Services declined to answer questions by The Brew about the new round of costs.
Communications Manager John Riggin said the agency would “defer comment” until after the BOE approved the EWO to Restoration East.
Riggin updated his statement yesterday to say, “The item was not approved at today’s Board of Estimates meeting. It was deferred. Once it is approved, we look forward to answering your questions.”