The decades-old deteriorating parking garage attached to Excela Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg will soon close and be demolished because it is too costly to maintain and repair, a city official said.
“It’s reached the end of its useful life,” Mayor Robert Bell said of the J. Edward Hutchinson Parking Garage, which is connected to the hospital by an enclosed walkway over Shearer Street. Deteriorated steel girders are clearly visible at the front of the garage.
An engineering study revealed that it would cost more than $2 million to perform the needed preventive maintenance, the mayor said. And that work would only extend the useful life of the garage for another three to five years, Bell added.
“We can’t justify that expenditure,” he said, noting the city spent $1 million a few years ago to make repairs at the garage. “You just don’t want to keep doing that.”
Greensburg will seek funding to demolish the 42-year-old garage, Bell said.
Source: Greensburg to close deteriorating hospital garage on Dec. 1 | TribLIVE.com
