Parking Deck Demolition Starting Later this Week

Demolition day will start this week in Houghton. During the past couple of weeks crews have been placing equipment, materials, and road barriers near the downtown Lakeshore Drive parking deck, in preparation of demolition day later this week. MJO Contracting will have crews start on the east side of the deck, working from the outside in, as suggested by the demolition sub contractor.

“The way this deck is built it’s a specialty thing. Not everyone does that type of work. So the subcontractor that MJO has, is a company called Veit out of Minnesota. They’ve done this before, They’ve done several of these, post-tension thin slabbed concrete structure. They’ve done many of those around the mid-west. When you look at their resume, parking garage, parking garage, parking garage. So they’ll be here starting that first week of June.” – Eric Waara, Houghton City Manager

The parking deck demolition is truly a two part project. With part one focusing on the tear down, while part two will work to resurface the roadway, and prepare the site for future developments.

“So the project is really two parts. You’ve got the demolition part and then the surface work. The sidewalks, street lights, planting, parking lots, all of that. Right now the contractor would like to get the demolition done as quickly as possible. Once the deck itself is down. Then everything gets a lot easier. Now it’s just some utility work. there’s some sidewalks. There’s no, heavy demolition going on. Once that’s down and the sun is shining on that area, a lot of that work can proceed like any other summer.” – Eric Waara, Houghton City Manager

The city will still allow some parking to occur on the west deck, while crews work to bring down the east side. Traffic traveling west on Lakeshore Drive will be stopped at Huron street, near the Soumi Restaurant. Those that regularly park around downtown can find a parking guide during the Lakeshore Drive project on the City of Houghton’s website.