Maidenhead town centre car park to be demolished
Report says Broadway car park is unsafe
A car park in Maidenhead is to be demolished following its closure late last year due to safety concerns.
The fate of Broadway Car Park, which has been closed since December, was decided by the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead’s (RBWM) council cabinet on July 27.
Cabinet members voted to pursue demolition following a report from council officers which suggested the 1960s concrete structure is “beyond its economic life”.
Officers recommended that the town centre car park be demolished to eliminate any risk to public safety posed by the structure.
Cabinet member for Highways and Transport, Customer Service Centre and Employment Cllr Geoff Hill said:
“It is safe to walk around it, but it is certainly not safe on the inside. There are significant structural failures.”
He added that there will be an “extensive” traffic management plan and that Broadway would be closed for “quite some time”.
The demolition work is expected to take about 10 months.
The car park was closed on New Year’s Eve after a piece of concrete fell from the ceiling.
Significant structural failure to the car park were highlighted in the report as a result of water ingress eroding the reinforced steel.
The report states:
“The Broadway Car Park structure is beyond its economic life and poses a significant Health and Safety risk due the deterioration of the structure.
“The demolition of the existing structure is now required, whilst the comprehensive regeneration of the Nicholson Centre is resolved.”
Cost
According to estimates cited in council reports, the cost of the demolition contract package will be £3.15m including fees and excluding VAT.
Demolition work is expected to commence in October thisyear.
A decision has not yet been what will be done with the site after the demolition work is complete.
The report noted that other car parks have absorbed the parking demand since the closure of Broadway’s – with Grove Road and Hines Meadow car parks taking a sizeable share of short and long term parking demand.