The latest sign of the East Rosemary Street parking deck’s progress came to fruition on Monday: the road in front of the construction area is open for the first time in nearly eight months.

The Town of Chapel Hill shared social media posts on Monday celebrating the reopening of a stretch of East Rosemary’s 100 block that had been closed since August 2023. The closure was in part to create construction staging for a crane to install several pieces of the new, seven-story parking deck — but the crane’s work wrapped up recently and the machine was removed earlier in April. While both nearby parking sites remained accessible during the closure, it allows all forms of traffic to run from North Columbia Street to Henderson Street unfettered once again.

“Thank you for your patience with this road closure,” the town government said in its weekly newsletter and a video about Monday’s reopening. “It allowed the contractor to more quickly and safely move the massive concrete deck pieces into place.”

The town-owned East Rosemary parking deck has suffered several hurdles in its construction since breaking ground in September 2021. The structure at 125 East Rosemary Street needed to be dug lower into the ground than expected, causing several delays from the initial fall 2022 opening date Chapel Hill had shared. The delays and soaring construction costs also led the local government’s spending on the project to cross $50 million — increasing from the initial $30 million estimates for the deck in 2021. Town officials, however, say the deck is on track to be completed in the summer and once open, it will provide around 1,100 parking spots to Chapel Hill community members and visitors.

When speaking with 97.9 The Hill in late February, Chapel Hill Town Manager Chris Blue said the town government’s goal is to have the new East Rosemary parking deck up and running by the summer.

“If you go by and take a look [at the deck],” he said, “you’ll see it is really starting to look like something we’re all excited about parking in really soon. By early summer, we’re hoping to have things open and for business.

“Taking the long view,” Blue continued, “having this deck available to our downtown businesses, visitors to downtown, folks coming to football games and campus-related events, this is going to be a game-changer and we’re very, very excited about it.”

 

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