State leaders want the Legislature to approve $10.9 million in repairs to a busy parking ramp at the Minnesota Capitol after discovering deteriorated cables supporting the deck.
Hundreds of spaces have closed at the Centennial Parking Ramp over the past four months, worsening the statehouse parking crunch as workers raced to shore up concrete support beams and fix and replace cables between the basement and first floors.
The Minnesota Department of Administration sought the funds in a preliminary capital budget request that Gov. Mark Dayton submitted to the Legislature last week.
"The governor recognizes, much like the aging infrastructure in water resources across the state, that there's a really important responsibility to maintain the state's assets," Commissioner Matt Massman said. "I think it's a very important need."
The request said that failing to make the repairs would render the 1,489-stall ramp "unsafe over time and could result in catastrophic failure."
Department officials clarified Thursday that the warning referred to the consequences if engineers didn't immediately shore up the first floor after finding problems there last September. They noted that the structure, as a whole, has been safe.
The department was already planning a rehab at the 60-year-old ramp when engineers identified structural problems during routine maintenance. It initially closed 400 parking spaces at Centennial — moving some employees to other lots — but reopened 120 of them in recent months.
"The parking ramp is certainly safe as long as the shoring is in place, but it's important to complete the work so that we can bring those parking spaces back," Massman said.
