Bayshore shoppers, staff reunited with vehicles after parking structure partial collapse

Dozens of shoppers and employees recovered their vehicles on Thursday morning from the parking structure at the Bayshore Town Center that had partially collapsed last month.

Crews on Thursday cleared snow and loose concrete so engineers could make a temporary ramp for vehicles to exit the structure, one-by-one.

Bayshore Town Center’s management and security team started stages of vehicle removal with owners parked on the structure’s second floor this week. Members of the management team and security escorted owners out to their cars, confirmed they owned the cars, took their key and drove out of the parking garage.

Some vehicles remain stranded on the third floor where the parking ramp collapsed, Bayshore Town Center officials noted. The town center is working with engineers, fire and police departments and their insurance company to come up with a master plan to bring the cars down, but no timeline has been released yet, officials said.

Despite the two cars that were trapped under snow and concrete chunks, no injuries were reported. Those vehicles were removed on Saturday, North Shore Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Dan Tiyk said.

Structural engineering firm GRAEF is assisting Bayshore with the investigation. The firm previously provided civil and structural engineering to the outdoor mall, including three parking structures. A company spokesperson has directed all questions back to Bayshore officials.

Bayshore Town Center officials are investigating what caused the collapse after video showed rubble falling through the third floor of the structure and into the first, only feet away from shoppers in their cars. While the official cause has not been determined, North Shore Fire Rescue Chief Robert Whittaker said piling snow on the would have had likely impact.

“I don’t know why (the garage collapsed), but it appears snow would have some likely impact,” the chief said. “Piling snow on a property, especially if it’s elevated, probably not a good idea.”

A meteorologist with the National Weather Service said Milwaukee’s North Shore area received 3.3 inches of sleet on Feb. 22 before the collapse. National Weather Service meteorologist Cameron Miller said the combination of the weight of snow and sleet likely contributed to the incident.

The parking structure was built in 2005-2006, Bayshore Town Center officials said. The engineers who designed the structure were also on the scene and investigating, Tiyk said.

This was not the first parking structure incident in Milwaukee.

A Milwaukee County jury ruled that the insurance company for the firm who installed a panel that fell and killed a 15-year-old in 2015 owed $39 million, the most recent incident where slabs of concrete fell in Wisconsin parking lots. The teen was headed to Summerfest when a panel fell of a parking garage, killing him and injuring two others.

State statute 101.01 (12) considers parking structures as public buildings and requires them to be governed by the Commercial Building Code. There is no requirement for public buildings to be inspected after construction unless they were altered or if someone makes a complaint about the building’s safety, Wisconsin State Rep. Darrin Madison said. State law requires building inspections when a building is constructed or altered.

Glendale Mayor Bryan Kennedy said the city hasn’t considered passing new laws regulating inspection of parking structures and plans to follow state statutes. “We won’t reinvent the wheel,” he added, noting the city only has four parking ramps and will comply with state code.

Steve Schuster contributed to this report.