Baltimore police evacuate forensic processing bays after parking garage ceiling starts to crumble
The ever-escalating cost of repairing the BPD garage rose once again after parts of the concrete basement caved in on May 20. Fortunately, no member of the Crime Scene Unit was injured.
Above: The cordoned-off basement bay of the police garage is currently propped up by metal posts. Water puddles in the foreground. (Confidential source)
Despite millions of dollars spent on repairs, the Police Department’s headquarters parking garage continues to deteriorate.
On May 20, four bays used by the Crime Scene Unit’s forensic processing lab had to be evacuated after concrete started falling from the garage ceiling, The Brew has learned.
“It’s a miracle nobody was injured,” said a person with knowledge of the previously unreported incident, noting that workstations and drying cabinets used by CSU to process and document fingerprint and DNA information were located under the crumbling ceilings.
The ceilings are now held up by steel support props, and the area is sealed off to personnel and vehicles.
Because the garage is interconnected with the police headquarters building on East Fayette Street, “people are getting concerned about our safety,” said the source.
“We’d like to know how all the jackhammering that goes on in the garage is impacting the structural integrity of our building. We can feel the building shaking. But they just shrug it off,” the source said, referring to police command.
OUT OF SERVICE: Metal poles prop up one of the bays used by the Crime Scene Unit’s forensic processing team. At right are disconnected drying cabinets and at left brown bags used to package evidence. Below: Rubble continues to fall from the ceiling. (Confidential source)
Collapse Confirmed
After several requests for information, BPD and General Services yesterday confirmed the ceiling collapse.
“The area affected by the fallen ceiling parts contained some equipment being relocated by BPD. There were no injuries or damage,” the statement read.
Asked about the cause of the falling concrete, the statement said, “Given that the site is an active construction zone, it is possible that vibration from construction equipment may have contributed to the incident.”
• How a hole in the police department garage morphed into a $8.3 million non-bid project (6/5/24)
Asked if the garage and adjacent police buildings are safe, General Services said, “Our team coordinated the structural engineer on record to assess the project. The garage has been stabilized to minimize risk during the renovation.”
Last month the Board of Estimates transferred $3.9 million from other programs to “Police Headquarters Garage Repair” without public notice of the ceiling collapse or the CSU evacuation.
The appropriation came on top of $8.3 million already spent by the city to address structural and water-seepage issues at the granite-clad garage, built in the 1970s, that stretches fortress-like along the 600 block of East Baltimore Street.
LEAKY GARAGE: At upper right, the vertical lines are water dripping from the garage into the former CSU lab. Below: An exterior view of the garage from East Baltimore Street, with the BPD headquarters building rising above it. (Confidential source, Mark Reutter)
Black Hole of Costs
It all started on August 24, 2023, when a one-by-three-foot slab of concrete decking fell, opening up a hole in the middle of the garage.
A structural engineer hired by General Services reported that the failed section revealed numerous stress points in the building and ominously concluded, “It is not possible to predict which damaged areas will fail, when they fail, what will make them fail, and to what degree.”
In February 2024, Mayor Brandon Scott and the Board of Estimates approved a $6.8 million emergency (no-bid) agreement with Restoration East, a Rosedale concrete contractor, to repair the garage.
Five months later in June 2024, the Board of Estimates handed a $1.5 million Extra Work Order (EWO) to Restoration East after a “fresh sounding survey” by General Services revealed extensive delamination, or concrete layers pulling away from each other.
The condition would require “partial depth, full depth, overhead and vertical repairs” of the concrete-encased steel columns and girders because “this delamination was notably more pronounced than what was observed during the initial testing.”
Amid the verbiage, General Services identified another key contributor to the project’s skyrocketing cost – some $3.37 million was not budgeted to restore the garage’s structural integrity, but rather to install HVAC equipment to better air condition and heat the police headquarters complex.
With the EWO money spent at the same time the basement ceiling partly collapsed, General Services came back to the BOE last month seeking another $3.9 million to address emergency “safety risks” at the building.
The agency spelled out the needed repairs as follows:
• Replace an unspecified number of concrete-encased steel beams and girders on levels 1, 2, 3 and 4.
• Install additional reinforcement for other steel columns.
• Apply a new deck coating to better protect the surface from water infiltration.
• Replace the expansion joints on the upper parking levels to prevent water intrusion.
The end result: a lot more jackhammering will be happening at the police complex.
Originally scheduled to reopen next week (July 16, 2025), the garage project’s completion date has been pushed back to November 1, 2026, or 16 months from now, according to city documents.
IN THE BEGINNING: The hole in the BPD garage after a loose slab of decking fell on August 24, 2023. (General Services)