Wolverhampton's Civic Centre car park to shut for £2 million revamp
The biggest car park in Wolverhampton city centre will close for almost six months while it undergoes a £2 million overhaul.
The council's 40-year-old Civic Centre car park will close on March 14 so essential repairs and maintenance can be carried out.
Plans were unveiled to give the 395-space car park a new lease of life last year.
The bulk of the repairs will involve behind the scenes structural and engineering work.
Repairs need to be carried out to address concrete erosion and a fire safety sprinkler system will also be installed.
The car park, in Wulfruna Street, will be closed for five-and-a-half months and is due to reopen by the end of August.
City finance boss, Councillor Andrew Johnson, said the works had been timed to coincide with the £10.4m refurbishment of the neighbouring Civic and Wulfrun halls.
He said: "There is never an ideal time to close a major city centre car park, but these works are essential and we have planned them to coincide with what will be a relatively quiet time in the car park.
"The Civic and Wulfrun halls are just over the road and are both currently closed for a major refurbishment of their own.
"We have taken the opportunity to get the car park works done while this project is under way.
"The car park is due to reopen in late summer and in time for the university graduation season which is traditionally a time the car park gets very busy."
Councillor Johnson added: "We do apologise for the inconvenience the car park closure may cause, but the works are important to safeguard the future of this facility as our regeneration plans for the city are starting to take off.
"The car park is 40 years old and these improvements will ensure we can get many more years of use out of it."
The authority is spending a total of £22m on a revamp of the Civic Centre offices and car park.
The revamp is part of a large-scale shake-up of the council's property portfolio, which will also see 16 of its buildings close and 600 staff relocate to the main city centre HQ.
Three floors of the Civic Centre will be refurbished as part of the scheme, which council bosses say is essential so that the building can remain operational.
