TYLER, Texas — Officials celebrated a major milestone on Monday for the Smith County parking garage project being built in downtown Tyler.
Smith County leaders, representatives from Hoar Construction, SCI Construction and Fitzpatrick Architects and employees signed the 44,000-pound piece of concrete before it was placed on top of the garage by a 212-foot crane. The moment marks about a halfway point for the project.
Crews still need to install elevators, lighting among other things. Those in charge of the project say the garage will have all the modern amenities visitors could want, but it’ll also have aspects that help it blend into historic downtown Tyler.
"You’ll see some exterior landscaping. You’ll see concrete aprons that’ll tie the structure into Ferguson Street here where we’re standing today, as well as locust street one block behind us," said Stephen Flournoy, project executive with Hoar Construction.
When it’s done, the garage will be five stories tall and have 543 parking spots in total.
The plan is to have the garage ready to use by the final week of September or first week of October, depending on the weather.