Part of a parking garage at the Empire Building on Knapp Street in downtown Milwaukee collapsed, leaving residents without parking and raising safety concerns about the structure’s integrity.
Crews returned to assess the damage as engineers work to determine what caused the parking structure’s failure. Chris Geary, a parking structure restoration expert with Restoration Systems Inc., says collapses like this are often linked to delayed maintenance.
“Specifically what happened here, I’m not exactly sure until I can get my eyes on it,” Geary said. “But when it comes to parking structures, they’re expensive to maintain. So a lot of times, those repairs and maintenance get pushed down the line. Unfortunately, that leads to things like this.”
Geary says what many neighbors are calling a sinkhole is likely a structural failure.
“I don’t believe that it’s a sinkhole. What I think it is, it’s a structural failure; the concrete has likely started degrading,” Geary said. “There were areas that needed to be repaired, and that didn’t occur.
Watch: Neighbors concerned after parking structure collapse at downtown Milwaukee building
Neighbors concerned after parking structure collapse at downtown Milwaukee building
For residents, the collapse has turned daily routines upside down. Evie Hoppenrath, who lives in the Empire Building, says she now has to park on the street and move her car every two hours to avoid getting a ticket…