EFFICIENT STEEL SOLUTIONS FOR CAR PARK CONSTRUCTION IN A MEGAPOLIS

CAR PARKS IN A MEGAPOLIS

European practices demonstrate that the best way of addressing the street traffic congestion issue is to develop the infrastructure of multilevel car parking, which, in a short period, increases the number of parking spots in a city, while giving the green light to developers to make profitable investments into this prospective sector of commercial real estate.

 

The use of framed steel car parks in construction provides an opportunity for an investor to get up to 10% of additional parking spots* due to an increased span width and a smaller cross-section of columns, to cut down the construction time by up to 45%, and to increase the net present value (NPV) of an operating facility because of simplicity, lightness, and high factory readiness of structures.

*As compared with the traditional parking frames made of reinforced concrete.

Automatic car parks

Are one of the prospective types. They demonstrate such advantages as saving time on entrance-exit-search for an available spot and ensuring safe car storage. This type of parking requires no ramps or car passageways, which means more (by 35%-50%) parking slots as compared to other  construction techniques. At the same time, a complex way the car owner has to face while accessing their vehicle placed in automatic parking does limit the use of this type of facilities in shopping facilities, entertainment, and office centers, as well as in other locations that require car access without leaving the parking slot.

 

Mechanized car parks (semiautomatic)

Is a simplified version of automatic parking, which is a temporary rapid construction, often to concentrate surface car parks. Automatic and mechanized car parks can stand alone or be attached to, or built-in, an existing building; they also can be located underground.

Rapid construction

The construction completion time is cut down by up to 45% if a multilevel car park is erected with the use of metal structures instead of reinforced concrete. This is due to high factory readiness and unification of metal structures, simplicity of installation under restrained urban conditions. Large span, little weight, and a small number of frame items increase technological effectiveness of installation and decrease the foundation dimensions, which in turn speeds up the construction process. Reduction of the construction completion time lowers the expenses on land maintenance and increases the NPV (net present value) due to earlier commissioning.

 

An up to 10%-increase of parking slots

As there are no additional columns required with the span of 15 m—18 m and the column dimensions are small compared to reinforced concrete pillars, it means an up to 10%-increase of parking slots and a more convenient scheme of car movement.

Easy installation work in limited space

Due to unification of design solutions, high factory readiness, and the absence of "wet" processes under restrained urban conditions, the use of metal structures helps to complete a project within a minimal period, with no threat to the functioning of adjacent buildings, and without any traffic or road congestion issues.

 

Creation of landmark architectural structures

Today's advanced technologies of design and manufacture of steel frames and  enclosure structures provide broad options for creating a unique multilevel parking architecture, and for its integration into the existing urban architectural space. A broad palette of coatings, weather-resistant grades of steel, decorative and fencing metal panels, etc. help to reach the necessary expressiveness of the external appearance of car parks.

METHODS TO OPTIMIZE MULTILEVEL CAR PARK CONSTRUCTION

The use of standard design solutions for steel frames enables to efficiently address the issue of organizing engineering communications at the same level with flooring support structures, and reduce their structural depth, and, consequently, reduce the overall height of a building. This, in turn, reduces the height and cost of facades, or, alternatively, makes it possible to build more floors in a building of the same height. The most technically advanced solutions are multilevel car parks with intermediate storeys where two adjacent spans are shifted by half the height dimension measured between adjacent floors. This improves ventilation of a building structure, enhances structural rigidity, and increases the number of parking slots.

For parking structures, a reasonable option is to utilize a bracing scheme based on swing support of composite (reinforced concrete) flooring beams, with plates along with profiled flooring. Braced frames are mostly used when it is required to minimize the height of flooring beams or to minimize the deformability of the applied scheme. Other schemes are also applied — for instance, in which not only beams but also plates are made of composite materials, but they require the use of corrugated flooring (dimpled sheets). Swing support for beams is chosen because it is required to reduce the cross-section of columns and because it allows creating standard design solutions of floor framing and flooring with the same or lower the specific quantity of metal per structure.

The next method of improving design solutions is the optimal selection of types and crossing dimensions of beams.  For a given column grid with main 18m spanned beams, the optimal  beam crossing height is between 900 mm and 1100 мм (1 / 16-1 / 20 of span), but if we factor in the composite nature of materials, the same height does not normally exceed 800 mm (1/22 of span).