Upgrades to two roughly half-century old parking structures in Vail, Colorado that are greatly used by skiing visitors could cost just over $12.4 million, a new estimate presented to the Town Council recently suggested.
But that’s substantially less than the estimated nearly $300 million it could cost to replace the facilities, according to an assessment conducted by the Denver-based structural engineering firm J.R. Harris & Company.
Of the two structures studied, the Vail Village parking garage at 241 S. Frontage Road E, is the oldest at exactly 50 years. The second structure is called the Lionshead garage and is located at 395 East Lionshead Circle and is around 47 years old.
Upgrade work, according to Town documents, could include topping slab repairs, bearing pad replacement, concrete member repairs, and expansion joint repairs and replacements.
But the work on the structures would not include upgrades to fire sprinkler alarm systems, lighting and electrical systems, and elevators, all of which may also need modernization.
Either way, according to the J.H. Harris report, “deferring maintenance or allowing deterioration to go unchecked is a recipe for a much larger financial investment” down the road.
In the last 5 years, Vail has spent only around $800,000 on capital repairs for the two garages, making some town officials believe that it’s only a matter of time until a more comprehensive upgrade is undertaken.
A second factor in favor of upgrading the structures rather than replacing them is noted in the amount of time it would take for new construction. According to the structural assessment summary, building a new facility would take more than the traditional eight-month period between skiing seasons, causing some inconvenience to the millions of people who visit Vail every year.
February 7, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
