Back to the drawing board.

But the 600-plus space garage remains on schedule for completion late this year.

Warren City Council member David See said that the test results should not be viewed in any way as being a "setback" for the $8.2 million component of "Impact Warren."

"Now we know what we need to do" in terms of designing the garage on Clark St., said See.

Grout Systems, Inc. of Ohio last week drove a pile to a depth of 40 feet to determine the subsurface composition and what will need to be done to support the parking garage.

Dense gravel was found at 40 feet. Weight was then added and the testing mechanism finally failed at 180 tons.

If failure had taken place at 200 tons, rather than 180 tons, said See, the garage could have been designed and constructed with fewer columns.

See said that even with the one column design, the garage would have had a "2 X" safety factor, meaning each column could support twice the amount of weight actually placed on each column.

"'How many columns do we need?' is the question we were trying to answer and now we have our answer," said See. "It's just a matter of how we build it. We always knew we could put a garage there."

Based on the test results, the parking garage is now being redesigned by Tom Harley Architects, Indiana, Pa.

The testing was required before the parking garage could be advertised for construction bids, said See.

"Now we can bid to an exact design load rather than putting it out to bid before knowing," said See. "The test was just short of what we had hoped for, but it's not a setback at all."

More columns will mean the parking garage will be more expensive, said See, but the additional cost will not be known until after the facility is redesigned and bids are received.

Gov. Ed Rendell has pledged the entire $8.2 million needed for the parking garage, which will more than replace parking spaces lost due to "Impact Warren" construction in what is now the Island Parking Lot. The governor has already provided $3.2 million and the $5 million balance will be included in a state bond issue which has to be approved by state lawmakers.

See said the all-steel garage should be under construction by April and should be completed by the end of 2004, possibly as early as November.

The garage will be almost identical to the parking garage recently opened in Meadville, said See.