Transportation Department officials noticed a small crack in one of the beams of the Dan Allen Parking Deck, and after running structural analysis tests, the department now reports that the deck is structurally sound.

Transportation External Operations Manager Gary Bridges said the problem stems from construction problems when the deck was originally built around 17 years ago.

“The crack was basically due to a fault during the construction process,” Bridges said. “The builders went back patched it up when it was discovered.”

Bridges said workers noticed a crack in the patch when they were going through making plans for renovations and after that process is completed, the patch will be replaced.

“The initial investigation shows that the crack was just superficial and the beam is still structurally sound,” Bridges said. “When the design phase is completed, the patch will be repaired.”

Bridges said the patch must have started to decay the last couple of years and the repair process is scheduled to start around the end of November.

“Back in 2003, we had some engineers doing an inspection of the deck and this crack was not there, so it must have happened between now and then,” Bridges said. “The job will be bid out, so I don’t have a cost estimate at this time.”