The city of Boulder, Colo., is in charge of seven mixed-use parking garage facilities, two surface lots and three general improvement districts with over 2,500 paid and managed parking stalls. Parking garages are connected to a variety of buildings, such as commercial retail, office space, affordable housing and a luxury hotel, with different users like permit holders, employees and visitors. The garages are all also designed to meet Boulder’s multimodal Access Management and Parking Strategy. These various parking structures — ranging from seven years to 50 years old — require a unique strategy for upkeep and maintenance.

In order to maintain these structures, the city has a maintenance team of 10 people who work in shifts from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week and 365 days a year. This team has a seasonal maintenance and cleaning schedule to follow in order to keep all structures in good working order. Regular maintenance includes checking ventilation, stormwater, domestic water, electricity, fire suppression, HVAC and elevator systems and traffic coatings to protect exposed concrete. Water infiltration presents one of the greatest challenges for parking garages.

“Maintaining our garages in an extreme climate comes with many unique challenges — from salt tracked in by vehicles during the winter months to thawing and cracking concrete in the spring,” Dan Rodriguez, Boulder parking maintenance supervisor, stated. “Our team partners with various contractors to manage our facilities’ needs throughout all times of year.”

For major construction projects, there is a capital improvement project manager as well as a property management company in charge of the leased office and retail spaces and an administrative team that manages any governmental procurement processes.

In order to pay for this maintenance, the city has two yearly budgets for annual maintenance and capital improvements. Regular expenses, such as jetting storm drains, servicing elevators and servicing ventilation systems, are taken care of through the maintenance budget. The capital improvements budget focuses on larger projects, such as HVAC replacement and concrete repair. Budgets are determined based on the costs of planned maintenance activities, issues identified by maintenance during regular inspections, an outside firm’s facility assessment and possible unplanned maintenance. If an issue is identified during one of the maintenance team’s regular inspections, the cost of the fix could come from either budget depending on the size and level of urgency of the issue so that all issues are taken care of as quickly as possible.

“Recently, we adopted a new project delivery method designed to improve our garage capital improvement process and schedule,” Emi Smith, communications program manager, explained. “For a long time, we hired and coordinated the work with individual trades to complete capital improvements in our garages. It was difficult for our small team to coordinate the various work groups and closures in all of our garages and often left the public with the perception that our garages were always under construction. Now we hire an engineering firm to complete a top to bottom assessment of one facility at a time. The maintenance team completes the maintenance-related projects and the remaining findings are moved into a capital improvements list to be incorporated into a future project.”

This contract with a construction manager helps the city to address issues in one project so garages are closed for shorter periods of time, which minimizes the disruption to those who use the garages as well as a loss of parking revenue.

“We recognize that garage closures are hard on the community, so we try to limit closures whenever possible,” Smith emphasized. “While many projects can be completed without closing garages, certain projects in drive lanes, such as replacing compromised concrete or installing traffic coating to protect concrete, require closures. When considering a closure, we take several factors into consideration, including the type of work being performed and the safety of allowing both cars and pedestrians within proximity of the work areas. Additionally, certain parking garage layouts are more conducive to allowing for traffic shifts, changes in traffic patterns and partial closures. A decision to fully close a facility is never taken lightly.”

When a garage must undergo a closure, however, permit holders and users can be routed to nearby city-owned parking facilities.

This past spring, a citywide press release announced all upcoming closures for 2024 throughout all parking facilities that would take place between June and September. This included full closure of three garages, with the closure lasting from several weeks to slightly over a month. Only one garage was closed at a time to ensure the best access to parking options for the community. Information and updates were also shared regularly on the city website and social media and through e-newsletters. Dates for closures are selected after coordinating with community event organizers and property owners in order to have as little impact on the downtown as possible. Emails with closure dates and potential impacts were sent directly to garage permit holders along with programming, so the permit would work at two alternate nearby open garages during the closure. Physical and digital signage was placed at entrances and exits of closed garages, along with alternate parking options.

“Communicating with our parking facilities’ stakeholders well in advance of closure dates is essential to the success of regular maintenance improvements,” Margot Bigum, Boulder customer service supervisor, said. “We want to work collaboratively with those most affected by closures to maintain strong relationships and minimize our impact.”

While several businesses were concerned with possible noise impact, the city immediately addressed what days and times the impact would be highest. Since the city collaborates with businesses months in advance regarding closure dates and various forms of communication are provided to residents and visitors with alternate parking options, there is typically little negative feedback regarding the closures.

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