Worthing seafront car park closure: 'Significant number of defects' found in the building

Worthing Borough Council made the decision in May to close its seafront Grafton multi-storey car park. This was to carry out urgent investigations into its condition.

The council said the car park, off Marine Parade, is more than 60 years old and has ‘required heavy investment’ in repairs and maintenance in recent years ‘to keep it open and safe’.

"When we’ve been giving updates on why we’ve needed to close Grafton multi-storey car park there’ve been a number of questions about the advice we’ve taken,” the latest social media post read, on Wednesday (June 4) read.

"We went to HOP Consulting, a specialist civil and structural engineering firm, to get its urgent expert opinion on the condition of the car park and its safety.

“Some of you might remember that it was HOP that we worked with last year when Worthing Pier suffered storm damage and we needed to come up with a plan that would allow us to reopen it to the public as soon as possible.

“We want to be open and transparent about the issues we’re experiencing so that everyone can understand the decisions about Grafton that we’re taking. For that reason, we’ve now published the advice that HOP provided so you can read through it if you would like to. The only information we’ve held back is related to private business and commercial information.”

The HOP Consulting report stated that teams visited the site on Wednesday, May 7 to ‘briefly review the car park deck support beam’.

The report noted: “The unexpected failure seen resulted in a large portion of concrete cracking away and partially falling to the deck below.

“We recommended that the car parking bays directly over this beam should be closed and heras fenced to avoid cars parking over the now weakened deck support structure. We also highlighted that this failure was typical of those that could continue to occur due to the ongoing corrosion of the steel strands within the deck support beams and it was very difficult to predict when further similar failures could happen.”

The consultants advised that this is the ‘second such local failure’ that has occurred since June 2023 – when a ‘similar edge of support beam’ de-bonded and fell to the deck.

“The main building of the Grafton Car Park houses three / four levels of covered car parking, with two levels of roof top parking,” the report added.

“There are a significant number of defects in the building, which have been regularly surveyed. These are generally degradation of the HAC downstand I beams and we highlight that a substantial number of repairs to these have been undertaken historically. However, the deck structure and I beams continue to degrade with ongoing corrosion that expands the steel strands within the beams which could cause further sudden local failure of parts of the concrete to occur.

“It is very difficult to predict when and where these failures may occur, even with regular inspections.

“A substantial number of the I beams are seen to be cracked and whilst they may appear ‘solid’ at the time of an inspection, with no obvious significant de-bonding, they can worsen very quickly, resulting in local failures to occur, creating substantial risks, as has happened in a few instances over the last year or so.

"These local failures involved reasonably significant volumes and weight of the concrete falling from the soffit of the deck structure above, onto areas which are accessible to the public and their cars below.”

HOP Consulting therefore recommend that these risks be ‘appropriately managed as soon as is reasonably possible’.

As a result, the decision to close the car park was made.

Also published was a report by the director for sustainability and resources.

This stated: “The report is to update members with further details relating to the closure and the steps being taken to secure the site, investigate the issues, and provide alternative solutions to the residents and businesses affected by the closure.

“Given that the residents of Knightsbridge House access their rooftop car park via Grafton, the report sets out the engagement officers have had with the residents, in particular those with accessibility needs, and considers next steps.

“As there is a planned closure of High Street car park between 23rd June and 4th July as part of the installation of the Worthing Heat Network, the report sets out the additional urgent work being undertaken to mitigate the impacts and address the expected pressures.

"The report also notes the work being undertaken by officers to further accelerate the disposal of the Grafton site as part of the vision to create an exciting, connected seafront, retail and leisure offer to support a newly thriving heart of Worthing.”

The reports were discussed at the meeting of the council’s joint strategic committee on Tuesday (June 3). You can read them under item five on the agenda here:

https://democracy.adur-worthing.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=159&MId=2202&fbclid=IwY2xjawKuTTxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETBxaVNjeXZCc3A4bFlqb0FxAR6UvE3G8UYSt2rKzDBnywoA_Dh9C4tVlPYXJ4NXQ7yZu46yTKizpVBMqpIH-Q_aem_x_s7-pWmQ5tIiEbelzOV0w