Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino
Parking Garage Evaluation, Rehabilitation, and Litigation Support
The largest hotel in western New York, Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino is the recipient of the AAA Four Diamond Award for luxury accommodation. The hotel offers live entertainment, shopping, and dining, as well as casino gaming. To accommodate the large numbers of visitors, a five-story, 735,000sf precast concrete parking garage adjoins the casino resort complex, accessed via elevated skywalks.
Though well-maintained and aesthetically appealing from the exterior, the garage was experiencing a level of distress inconsistent with its relatively young age. At just four years old, the garage had already undergone repairs, and conditions continued to worsen. To diagnose the cause of ongoing deterioration, the Seneca Gaming Corporation retained Hoffmann Architects + Engineers to conduct an investigation.
Our engineers visited the site and recommended a scope of work for priority repairs, intended to protect the garage from accelerated damage during the winter months. As part of the investigation, Hoffmann oversaw core extraction for concrete analysis to assess the quality and condition of the parking decks. Samples of flange connections were also evaluated both visually and in the laboratory. Hoffmann then presented the Seneca Gaming Corporation with a detailed report, including documentation of existing conditions, evaluations of probable cause for observed problems, and recommendations for corrective action.
To remediate garage defects, Seneca Niagara retained Hoffmann to design and administer a program of rehabilitation that included spall repairs, flange connection rehabilitation, sealant joint replacement, application of migrating corrosion inhibitor and epoxy healer/sealer, and installation of a traffic-bearing membrane at the top deck level.
Concerned about the premature deterioration of the garage, Seneca Niagara retained counsel in a legal claim against the original parking structure developer. Hoffmann provided litigation support and expert witness services, which resulted in successful cost recovery for the Seneca Gaming Corporation.
