Times Observer file photo The Clark Street Parking Garage is pictured. A $3.3 million rehabilitation project to extend the garage's useful life began Monday.

Work has begun on the Clark Street Parking Garage.

Pullman SST Inc. will perform work under the Parking Garage Rehabilitation Project which includes all levels of the Clark Street Parking Garage. Those who utilize the garage are advised to watch for changing traffic patterns throughout the facility as work progresses. Permit holders may be assigned a temporary parking space within the garage or provided with information regarding an alternate parking facility, provided at no additional charge to the permit holder.

“Thank you for your patience during this project which will improve current conditions and extend the lifespan of the Garage,” city officials said in a Facebook post Monday.

During a special meeting in late August council members approved Pullman, a Pittsburgh company, as the contractor for a $3.3 million rehabilitation project of the parking garage. The amount is slightly more than the project approved by the council earlier this year, but Warren City Council members chose to add a $200,000 contingency fund for the project.

Mayor Dave Wortman said the project’s $3.3 million cost is more than half covered by grant funding. The Clark Street garage has several floors. The top floor isn’t rented because snow can’t be removed. Total capacity in the garage is 644 spaces, with 471 considered rentable and 316 rented. There are also 47 metered spaces and five spaces that can’t be rented because of rust problems. Evan Rowles, a principal at Atlantic Engineering Services in Pittsburgh, told council members that the plan is for a roughly 100-day construction schedule that splits the project into the fall/early winter and then next spring. Construction is expected to be completed by June 30, which would meet the deadline for the expiring grant funding.

Coating work needs to be done in the warmer months while concrete repairs needed in the parking garage can take place through the end of December and even into the end of January. Rowles said he has had discussions with Pullman about the schedule, and the company is considering sequencing work so that some levels may be finished before the end of 2025 with the rest of the project finishing in the spring.

The project will extend the useful life of the parking garage between 10 and 15 years.