New London — With an eye toward a future explosion in parking needs, the city’s Parking Authority will start a series of maintenance and improvement projects Monday at the city-owned Water Street parking garage.

The $125,000 worth of work will include not only repairs to the parking structure’s stairwells but modernization of the entrances and exits, with installation of updated control systems that will accept credit cards.

Parking Director Carey Redd said the new control system will allow, after state approval, the garage entrance on Atlantic Street to be turned into an exit to help move along traffic during peak summer days when nearly the entire garage empties onto Water Street.

Much of the summer traffic is related to the increasing number of patrons of Cross Sound Ferry, which had its highest volume of service in 2017, with 1.4 million overall passengers, according to a recent grant application.

Carey called Cross Sound a solid partner and a “driving economic force” for the city. In addition to Cross Sound, Carey said the city also is looking ahead to construction of the $100 million National Coast Guard Museum across the street and planning for the traffic that will come with it.

Carey is hosting a tour of the garage this week with people involved with the Coast Guard project in anticipation of construction of a $20 million pedestrian bridge that will shuttle foot traffic over Water Street. A timeline for that project has not yet been announced.

The city continues to pursue funding for a $13 million to $15 million garage expansion project that would boost the number of parking spaces by 400. The garage now can accommodate 995 vehicles. The city’s first attempt at accessing funding for the project through the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery program was unsuccessful.

Work is expected to start on Monday and will continue until mid-May. The garage’s Atlantic Street entrance will be closed during repairs. The Water Street entrance will remain open.

g.smith@theday.com