Leaks shut spots in new Hicksville garage

The new $35 million Town of Oyster Bay parking garage in Hicksville is leaking, forcing dozens of parking spaces to be cordoned off.

In several newly painted stairwells, leaks had already traced stains down the walls. And the electronic sign designed to alert commuters to the number of available spaces on each level has been dark for most of the time since the facility opened 12 days ago.

Three years after an earlier town garage had to be demolished because water seeping in caused structural damage, the new facility is experiencing its own set of water woes.

Town officials say the leaks -- highly visible Friday after two days of rain -- and other problems are "teething" pains usual in any new major construction project.

"We're aware of it and we're addressing it," town Public Works Commissioner Richard Betz said.

He said the contractor on the garage a block from the Long Island Rail Road station would be doing additional caulking Sunday and "that really should solve the problem."

Commuters like Christopher Composto of Hicksville hope so. The training director for a human resources company in Manhattan said, "I was relieved when the garage opened because it had been three years and it seems like a safe place to park your car."

But entering the garage Monday evening, "I looked down and there was a puddle. I was so enraged," Composto said. "After three years and $65 million, I said how shoddy can this construction be if it's already leaking."

Betz said: "There's probably a couple of miles of caulking and we did experience some water infiltration that got past the caulking. When you pour concrete, you will get some spider cracks and what you do is rout them out and put in epoxy. It's teething. If you build a house, you're going to have a punch list of things to fix."

He added he had the electronic parking capacity sign turned off because entering cars were encroaching into the exit lane, throwing off the sensors. He said the town would install pylons to separate the lanes and the sign can be turned on again.

In addition to the 1,440-vehicle garage's $35-million construction cost, $30 million also was spent on demolishing the old garage, property acquisition, road improvements and rental of temporary parking lots and shuttles.

The old garage, built in 1971, closed in June 2008 after workers discovered cracks in its concrete-and-steel T-beams.