It was supposed to open years ago to the public, then they found something very wrong with it
Under wraps – the unfinished multi-storey car park near Oystermouth Road (Image: Richard Youle )
Over a yellow bridge lies a secret world no regular citizen has ever set foot in. It sits, covered from head to toe, so no-one can see what’s within.
It sounds like some tale from the world of the Wizard of Oz, with the yellow brick road replaced with a yellow bridge of course. The truth is much more mundane however, but a saga nonetheless.
The secret world is actually just a multi-storey car park. What makes it different from other such buildings is that no cars have ever parked there – ever!
It was built around the same time as the Swansea Building Society Arena opposite, which opened in 2022, and was expected to start welcoming drivers heading for the city centre shops and attractions and/or the arena itself. A second car park beneath the arena is the main parking area for that facility.
But there was a problem. Paintwork which coated the steel was found to be defective and needed blasting off and reapplying.
The structure has been covered up pretty much ever since, while contractors finish what was left of the work after the company which began building it went into administration.
It has become a big blot on what is otherwise a great looking development in Swansea. But there is hope now that this could soon be rectified. The new, complete, multi-storey car park may be unwrapped in time for Christmas in Swansea, the council has said.
The works which have been taking places there include weather-proofing the car parking decks, completing painting and fire protection jobs, and work on the external finish and appearance of the building.
The car park was part of the £135 million council-led Copr Bay project which gave rise to the indoor arena, adjacent coastal park and car park below, the unmissable yellow pedestrian bridge across Oystermouth Road, and flats and commercial units opposite.
The authority had hoped the multi-storey car park, which it said had problems with its paintwork, would be completed in spring, 2024, and then the end of 2024. Never miss a Swansea story by signing up to our newsletter here
Swansea firm Andrew Scott Ltd, which was brought in after Copr Bay contractors Buckingham Group went into administration, has been busy at the multi-storey car park for a while.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council if it would be ready for use by Christmas, to which a spokesman replied: “We are working with the contractor to speed up delivery of the scheme with the aim of completion by the end of the year.”
He said the nearby St David’s multi-storey car park would remain open until the new car park was operational.
The multi-storey car park (left), flats and pedestrian bridge over Oystermouth Road(Image: Richard Youle )
Asked if the ground floor commercial units would be open for Christmas and who the tenants were, the spokesman said: “We are in discussions with previous tenants that had been announced for the units. Any available units will soon be re-marketed and – subject to the agreement of tenants – we anticipate the units being open prior to Christmas.”
There has been praise for the 3,500-capacity Swansea Building Society Arena, including from smaller independent music venues in the city.
It opened in March, 2022, and has hosted acts that were previously all but certain to have skipped Wales’ second city.
An external glass lift rising to the concourse level has proved tricky to resolve though. The council said it was an unfinished element of the scheme but that a solution had now been found. Work, it said, was due to start shortly. “We are targeting completion this summer,” said the spokesman.
The multi-storey car park at it was in September, 2023 (Image: Richard Youle)
Asked if the work to complete the multi-storey car park and other bits of the scheme would mean the Copr Bay budget being exceeded, the council said it had retained some funding and that this money – along with bonds, insurance and an offer of grant funding – was being used.
“There are no additional council funds being allocated to the project at this stage,” said the spokesman.