MADISON, Wis. — Republicans and Democrats are working together to find a way to keep the public safe while using parking structures.
The move comes after two major incidents in Milwaukee in recent years.
“This bill, simply, is a commonsense measure to ensure that folks are safe, and folks who aren’t doing this are held accountable,” State Rep. Darrin Madison, D-Milwaukee, explained of the proposal.
After the 2023 partial collapse of a parking ramp at Bayshore Mall in Glendale, near Milwaukee, Madison said lawmakers found a gap.
“Parking structures are not required to be inspected post-construction because they are governed by the commercial building codes,” Madison explained.
However, those structures are exposed to the elements, which is why some state legislators started pushing for inspections every five years, similar to how bridges undergo checks every two to four years.
Though dozens of vehicles were stuck in the Bayshore Mall structure for several days, nobody was hurt during the lunch hour rush when it happened.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case with another parking ramp-related incident over a decade ago.
“In Milwaukee, in downtown Milwaukee, a young man, a 15-year-old, lost his life because of a panel falling from a parking structure downtown,” State Rep. Bob Donovan, R-Greenfield, recalled.
Jared Kellner was killed in 2010 after a 13-ton concrete slab fell. Two others were injured.
Donovan said people should ask why inspections aren’t already required.
“You drive into these parking structures, you leave your vehicle, you’re walking out — you expect that things are going to be well maintained and appropriate, and certainly not going to suffer some catastrophic situations [as] we have had in the past,” Donovan said.
If the bill sounds familiar, it has been introduced before. Lawmakers said there was too much going on at the end of last session to get it across the finish line, but this time it is back with more bipartisan support than ever before.
