Work to prepare for the demolition of the closed Broadway multi-storey car park in Maidenhead will start this week.
Safety hoarding will be erected around the site from Friday (17 November) in advance of scaffolding going up around the building during December. Demolition work is then due to commence in January, after the crucial Christmas shopping period, and is expected to take around 10 weeks.
Cabinet agreed in July to the demolition of the car park, to remove the safety risks posed by the failed structure, while reducing the potential for anti-social behaviour and town centre blight.
Since closing the multi-storey car park for safety reasons in December 2022, the council has worked with contractors and specialists to fully assess the structure and consider options and associated costs for next steps. The 1960s concrete structure is now beyond its economic life and in significant structural failure, due to water ingress eroding the reinforced steel and needs to be demolished.
Looking ahead to the demolition next year, the council will be seeking to engage with businesses in the vicinity of the car park prior to this work starting to help minimise the impact as much as possible.
At this stage no road closures will be required to install the hoarding and scaffolding, with the council working hard to avoid any impact over the peak Christmas trading period for businesses. The council will continue to promote all parking options in Maidenhead through its Park Smart Maidenhead campaign.
When the safety hoarding is installed from Friday, a section of the footpath on the eastern side of King Street, by the vacant business units underneath the car park, will be temporarily unavailable for pedestrians to use. However, the footpath on the western side of the street, and the road itself, will be unaffected.
Safety hoarding will be in place on the footpath on the northern side of Broadway from the junction of King Street eastwards to where the car park finishes. With the footpath on the southern side of the road also unavailable due to ongoing work on the One Maidenhead development, a footpath diversion will be in place running south along King Street and up Queen Street, before re-joining Broadway.
Councillor Geoff Hill, Cabinet member for highways and transport, said: “These enabling works are the first stage in this major project to safely demolish a large multi-storey building in a busy, built-up area, and residents and businesses will see hoarding and scaffolding go up on site in preparation from next week.
“As with any large-scale demolition project, there is likely to be some unavoidable disruption to undertake these works safely, but we’re striving to minimise this as best we can and getting things ready to start demolition after the crucial Christmas trading period.
"Over the coming weeks, we’ll be looking to engage with businesses as part of planning for the demolition phase, to ensure it can happen safely and as smoothly as possible for the town centre, businesses and residents.
“I would again like to thank everyone for their ongoing patience while technical assessments of Broadway have been carried out to get us to this crucial point, and for continuing to play their part for Maidenhead town centre by shopping locally and supporting traders.
“Broadway is sadly a failed structure, beyond economic repair, and poses a public safety risk. This is not a situation anyone would’ve wanted, but public safety must always be our top priority, and we must now undertake these initial enabling works and then demolition safely and as swiftly as practically possible while minimising the impact on our town centre.”