Now 50, Vail parking structure is reaching the end of its useful life. Town staff says $12M in maintenance will stave off a 9-figure replacement project

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The expected life of a parking structure is five decades, and the Vail Village parking structure is now 50 years old.
Those are the words of structural firm of JR Harris, which was recently hired to perform a structural assessment of the town’s two major parking structures — Vail Village and Lionshead. The Lionshead Structure is 45 years old.
But even though the two structures are near the end of their useful life, “it does not mean they are in disrepair,” Vail Public Works Director Greg Hall told the Town Council in a recent memo. “What it does mean is like an older automobile or house, the maintenance costs are going to be more expensive going forward.”
But that’s better than the alternative. Replacing the town’s parking structures, which are valued at $200 million to $300 million, would require a level of investment that’s not feasible at the current time, Hall said.
“If the town were forced to replace the structures, being able to finance not one but the two structures for replacement is outside the town’s current bonding capacity,” Hall said. “A second issue with full replacement is the time to take down and then replace the structures. A project of this size could not happen in an 8-month period between ski seasons.”

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So the best option at this point, Hall said, is to set aside ample funding for the maintenance of the facilities.
“Keeping the asset well maintained will allow the structures to last well into the future,” Hall said.
JR Harris’ structural assessment performed on the Vail Village and Lionshead structures recommended an estimated $12,421,228 in capital structural repairs.
Suggested maintenance includes topping slab repairs, precast/prestressed concrete member repairs, bearing pad replacement, material testing, replacement of joint sealant, traffic coating replacement, expansion joint repair and replacement, and the application of penetrating sealer.
To pay for the maintenance, Hall recommends the Town Council examine increasing parking revenue, or look into changing the structures’ funding mechanisms so that parking revenue is no longer required to supplement transit operations.
Town staff, at the council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, is expected to request permission to negotiate the 2025 structural repairs with Restruction Construction, a specialty parking structure repair contractor who has performed most of the structural repairs for the town over the last five years.
If permission is granted, the town staff would then return with two options — to perform the work within the approved budget time frame or provide a “more realistic look at the work needing to be performed over the next couple of years and the time needed and disruption impacts,” Hall said.