Tag Archives: maintenance

Why is it Raining in my Parking Structure?

parking structure rainingBy Scott Weiland

Ever wonder why it is raining inside your parking structure?  Well, it is a sign that your parking structure needs attention. Water is the No. 1 cause of parking structure deterioration. Water-saturated concrete can freeze, expand, and spall. Combined with oxygen, water can also cause corrosion of the concrete reinforcing, accelerated by exposure to deicing salts. As reinforcing steel expands as it rusts, this process also leads to concrete spalling. Spalled concrete provides less cover or protection of the structure which leads to further (and accelerated) deterioration if not repaired in a timely manner.

The top level of your parking structure not only provides possibly the least desirable parking spaces, it also serves as the roof of the facility. Controlling water in the form of rain or melting snow at this level is the least expensive way to extend the life of your parking structure and minimize maintenance costs. Controlling the water runoff involves shedding water to drains as quickly as possible.

Ponding water is unacceptable as it saturates the concrete and leaks to lower levels. The installation of supplemental drains can easily and permanently address ponding. Urethane joint sealant at the top level is exposed to UV sunlight and tends to break down within a few years. The breakdown of this product leads to cracks in the sealant allowing leaks to the levels below. This leads to degradation at lower levels like that described above at the top level.

Therefore, it is important to visually inspect joint sealants annually and budget a portion of joint sealant replacement approximately every three years at the top level. Urethane joint sealant replacement will cost approximately $4.50 per linear foot but provides one of the best returns on investment when it comes to parking structure maintenance.

Given the accelerated rate of parking structure deterioration, this is cheap insurance against having to perform more expensive repairs in the future.

Scott Weiland, PE, is founder of Innovative Engineering, Inc. He will present on this topic during the 2020 IPMI Virtual Parking & Mobility Conference & Expo, June 1-2, wherever you are. Click here for details and to register.

 

Are You Too High Up to Bend Down?

Woman bending over to pick up trashBy Jennifer Carroll

My management philosophy is to lead by example. If I can do it, you can do it too. In my first parking manager position, I worked in all the different positions we had–cashier, auditor, shuttle driver, etc. I remember when I trained with someone in maintenance, he said, “Now you can go sit in the office and take a break.”

“Is that what you are going to do,” I asked. He said, “No, I am going to clean the bathrooms.” I said, “Well, if you are going to clean the bathrooms, I am going to clean the bathrooms too!” So we did.

Having a dirty parking lot is poor management, whether it is a restaurant, office building, department store, or airport. It sets the tone and gives the first impression of the building. It says either, “We don’t care how dirty things look or are,” or “We pride ourselves for being clean inside and out.” Maybe I am too picky, but I notice these things–if there are cigarette butts all over a restaurant parking lot, will the kitchen be dirty too? If there are food wrappers all around the parking lot of a hospital, do they care about how clean their instruments are?

It’s important to set an example for your team and pick up some trash. Now I am not suggesting that you pick up all trash you see everywhere, but if a member of your team catches you doing it, they are more likely to do it, too. So let’s pitch in to be a great example and maybe even save some labor dollars while we do it!

Jennifer Carroll is regional director with REEF PARKING.

TIMBER! Considering cross-laminated timber as a solid strategy to future-proof parking

By Chelsea Webster

BUILDING A PARKING FACILITY IS EXPENSIVE—not only because of the land, permits and 19-10 TIMBER articlered tape, and technology you have to incorporate into the facility, but also because of the material and construction costs. To make matters worse, after sinking piles of money into the project, some parking structures end up being pretty ugly—think the common six-story, 25-year-old cracking concrete monstrosities. They’re not really what you’d want to showcase your newest parking technology and investments in.
There is also a huge push from many direc­tions to be more environmentally conscious in our endeavors—things such as LEED certifica­tion, Parksmart certification, sustainability, and new tech, including solar panels that shade park­ing lots and putting lights on a sensor system.

We recognize that we need to make changes in parking. But what?
A term we’ve heard a lot lately is “fu­ture-proofing.” A couple key trends the parking industry has seen for new parking facilities are:

1. Mixed use developments: parking, commer­cial, residential, or some combination of these all under one roof.

2. Convertibility: meaning that at the end of their parking lifespan, with some modifications, ga­rages can have another purpose, such as retail, public gathering places, or special event space (stadium, concert hall, etc.).

I am not discounting the value and purpose of our existing parking structures. But as new ones are built, we need to plan for their futures better than we did for those of their predecessors.

So how can we plan for the future of parking infrastructure while making it cost less, be more environmentally friendly, and look nice enough that people want to use it for more than just tem­porary vehicle storage?

Enter Cross-laminated Timber

Cross-laminated timber (CLT, also known as mass timber) is an engineered wood product made by gluing planks together to form layers and gluing layers together (perpendicularly) to form panels. Think of the board game Jenga. The panels are used in construction for walls, floors, and framing, either exclusively using CLT or in conjunction with other building materials (steel, concrete, etc.).

CLT performs similarly to traditional concrete elements and was meant to replace all sorts of materials, es­pecially stone and masonry components.

More facts:

  • More layers means greater strength, with the typical panel consisting of three to seven layers.
  • Panels range anywhere from 2 to 18 feet in width and 40 to 98 feet in length, depending on the production facility and purpose of the panel.
  • Load-bearing for large panels is around 82,000 pounds.
  • It’s great for buildings in the 40-story or 500-foot-tall range.
  • It has comparable structural performance as traditional concrete elements.

Why Use CLT?
The most common benefits of CLT are its light weight, faster construction time, environmental impact, and cost savings during construction and installation. Let me explain:

  • Weight: Significantly less weight is held by the CLT structure than one with traditional building mate­rials such as concrete. Less weight means fewer de­mands on the foundation, and the ability to build tall structures as the base can support a higher volume of materials. It’s also less dense, which means it does not transmit as much noise.
  • Speed: CLT is a prefabricated material, so panels that meet exact sizes and specifications (such as lo­cations of door or window openings) can be made in advance. This reduces construction time, especially because there are many production facilities across North America.
  • Environment: Mass timber is a renewable re­source, in that trees used to make the panels come from sustainably managed forests that are planted and regrown (tree harvesting is currently outpaced by tree replanting in the U.S.). Trees are also CO2 negative, meaning wood absorbs the gas rather than contributing to our pollution problem (900kg of CO2 absorbed per ton4). Each cubic meter of wood saves two tons of emissions, resulting in a savings of 50,000 tons for a 40-story building.5 And best of all, it’s made primarily from trees infected with moun­tain pine beetle that would have had to be removed and destroyed regardless.6
  • Cost: Foundation requirements are reduced signifi­cantly when CLT is used for building thanks to de­creased weight. Labor requirements are also reduced as specialists aren’t required,7 and construction can be completed sooner, meaning the building can open and start generating revenue faster. Finally, CLT has excellent thermal insulation and air tightness and can help save on related costs in colder climates.

Why Not Use Mass Timber?

CLT is a relatively new development in building materi­als. Although it has been used successfully across Europe for more than a decade, North America has been slow to adopt the technology. That’s partly due to a previous lack of production facilities and partly due to a lack of exam­ples and case studies proving the success of CLT.
Although mass timber is certainly catching on, there’s still a great deal of research to be done on the longevity, durability, and conditions under which CLT would be a good choice of building material.

I spoke with John Nairn, professor of mechanical engineering at Oregon State University and an avid researcher of CLT.9 When it comes to mass timber, his biggest concern with the structural functionality of the material is cracking. If not dried properly, or exposed to changes in moisture content, the wood cracks and loses structural integrity.

I also asked John if cars constantly driving and park­ing in the structure cause vibrations, noise, or other me­chanical stress issues. It turns out that vibrations and noise are actually dampened by wood constructions, so this is actually a benefit over other materials.

Addressing the Elephant(s) in the Room

It’s made of wood. Will my parking structure catch fire?
It’s understandable that many people would assume that because it’s made of wood, it’s easily combustible. In reality, CLT is actually difficult to set on fire, and one of the best properties is that it attempts to put itself out if it catches fire.

When designing a CLT-based building, it’s import­ant to note that thicker panels (due to more layers, not thicker boards) are more fire-retardant than thinner ones. Also, vertical panels (such as walls) are more resistant to flames than horizontal panels (such as ceilings).
I hope it goes without saying that you should con­sult a professional in the field and follow all building standards. For those interested, CLT is recognized in the international building code, and both the U.S. and Canada have handbooks on building with CLT.

Can CLT Be Used for Parking Structures?
My answer for you (after much research and interview­ing Nairn) is a definite yes—with some considerations.

The first thing to think about is your climate. Wood components of CLT are ideally dried to within 1 to 3 percent moisture and then remain at the same mois­ture content. So, if you’re in a humid location such as New Orleans, La; Atlanta, Ga.; or almost anywhere in Florida, you’ll need to have the panels made nearby so they don’t absorb the moisture in the air once shipped and used in construction.

That being said, rainy climates such as Vancou­ver, Canada, and Seattle, Wash., are some of the most prominent (North American) pioneers when it comes to building projects using CLT. Issues occur when there is a change in the environment—the resulting residual shrinkage and expansion causes problems, not any given climate itself.

Also of note are particularly snowy climates, but effi­cient snow removal (as in before it melts into the wood) should combat this issue. Another option is coating the panels to be waterproof, although this would add to the cost of the material. Salt and sand used to combat snow are unlikely to be an issue if panels are properly sealed.

The second thing to think about is maintaining a consistent temperature. CLT cracks the least when it’s kept at a relatively consistent temperature. So, if you’re in a climate that varies drastically between seasons, it would be necessary to manually control the tempera­ture on an ongoing basis.

The third consideration is the quality of the CLT panels. A CLT panel with thinner but more layers is better resistant to fire and cracking, can handle more weight, and is generally better prepared to handle other issues. However, these quality concerns often come at a higher price, and it may also be more difficult to find a production facility willing to accommodate.

Mitigating Challenges
Considering the above challenges, there are several ways to address the potential issues and overcome them. Each of these items can also be monitored on an ongoing basis as a preventive maintenance plan, and any issues can be addressed before they develop further.
Let’s start with cracking. If (or more likely when) cracking does occur, it isn’t necessarily a problem. Panels can lose up to 50 percent of their strength and weight-bearing ability once cracked, but if you build to only ever use the panels up to 50 percent of their rated capacity, you won’t have an issue with cracks. A dura­bility analysis is a good step to figuring out the rate at which cracks are likely to occur, and planning occupan­cy and use around the results will mitigate any issues.

Next up is the consistency of the temperature. If you live in a moderate climate, you’re set. If you don’t, one option is to use mass timber on the inside of a structure—for walls, floors, and ceilings. CLT is a great candidate for an indoor application where temperature is regulated. For parking, a heated or temperature-con­trolled garage is an ideal use case. Even better, mass timber products work great in conjunction with other materials. So, you could build a concrete foundation and exterior walls and use CLT for the elevator shafts, stairwells, ceilings, and other indoor components.
Finally, let’s tackle the quality and availability of CLT. The industry is growing quickly both abroad (Europe and Japan in particular) and domestically (production facilities are opening and expanding on a monthly, if not weekly basis12). With new facilities opening regularly, product technology will improve, competition will bring down costs, and new locations will broaden availability and reduce shipping challenges. The logical progression will be that CLT panels will increase in quality (thinner layers, and more of them, with new coatings to prevent delamination and other deterioration) and availability.

Example Structures
Still a bit unsure about mass timber as a building ma­terial? Here are some examples from Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. showing successful construction projects.

1. Dalston Works: Apartment complex in London, England, made of a cluster of buildings ranging from five to 10 stories high. 33.8 meters tall, 374 days to complete (pre-fab­ricated pieces made offsite), 121 apartments total plus restaurant and retail space.

2. Wayne Gretzky Sports Centre: Located in Brant­ford, Ontario, Canada, this project used CLT in ex­pansion of the preexisting facility for ceilings, out­door shelters, indoor panels, and design elements.

3. Albina Yard: A four-story office building in Portland, Ore., which was the first U.S. building to use a domes­tically made CLT structural system.

4. Riverfront Square: 2 million square feet of offices, 2,000 residential units, a hotel, public space, and cultural facilities comprise the three-building proj­ect. This is slated to be the biggest CLT project in the U.S. to date.

These are just a select few of the projects already planned or completed using mass timber.

What’s Next?
More research is definitely on the agenda. Organiza­tions such as the Softwood Lumber Board, Binational Softwood Lumber Council, United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Canada, and Canadi­an NEWBuildS Network are supporting considerable research around the use of CLT and other mass timber systems.13 Things such as lifespan, load bearing, and durability all need to be carefully researched, and con­ditions for proper use documented.
Expanded mass timber production is also on the horizon. Canadian company Structurlam is on the fore­front of the mass timber revolution. It produces CLT for projects across North America (Microsoft, Vancouver Convention Centre, Raleigh Durham Airport, Ronald McDonald House, recreation centers, Art Gallery of On­tario, and more) and is supplying materials to all sorts of projects across Canada and the U.S. Structurlam is set­ting the stage for many successful companies to produce and supply this reinvigorated building essential.

Partnerships are developing among key players as well. Architects, engineers, wood producers, and builders are working together to design and produce sound structures with an environmentally conscious backbone. It’s only a matter of time before government becomes involved and starts to regulate (maybe even mandate) eco-friendly building materials such as mass timber. We’re at the precipice of a new wave of carbon emission regulations and other restrictions on tradi­tional construction techniques. If all parties come to the table, safety, environmental protection, profits, ur­ban living, and other priorities don’t have to compete.
Overall, cross-laminated timber is a promising new application of wood as a safe and efficient building mate­rial for residential, commercial, recreational, and park­ing buildings. It lowers the cost of the project, speeds up construction time, and is environmentally friendly.

By incorporating mass timber in this way, we meet a lot of needs in parking: We stay relevant and innovative for our customers, we meet environmental regulations, and we implement new overhead cost-reduction op­tions. When it comes down to it, who wouldn’t like to be on the forefront of bringing these benefits to the parking industry?

Read the article here.

CHELSEA WEBSTER is a marketing specialist at ParkPlus System. She can be reached at chelsea.webster@getparkplus.com.

References
1. Think Wood: www.thinkwood.com/products-and-systems/cross-laminated-timber-clt-handbook

2. CORE: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82228698.pdf

3. American Plywood Association (APA) www.apawood.org/cross-laminated-timber

4.www.architectsjournal.co.uk/buildings/feature-just-how-sustainable-is-cross- laminated-timber/10024485.article

5.CORE: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82228698.pdf

6.www.bdcnetwork.com/5-myths-about-cross-laminated-timber

7.www.bdcnetwork.com/5-myths-about-cross-laminated-timber

8.www.iafss.org/publications/fss/9/1279/view/fss_9-1279.pdf

9.Personal interview with John Nairn, professor of mechanical engineering and chair in wood science and engineering at Oregon State University; he can be reached at www.cof.orst.edu/cof/wse/faculty/Nairn/

10.www.bdcnetwork.com/5-myths-about-cross-laminated-timber

11.www.iafss.org/publications/fss/9/1279/view/fss_9-1279.pdf

12. www.eesi.org/articles/view/domestic-mass-timber-industry-expands-with-two-new-planned-clt-facilities-f

13.www.structuremag.org/?p=10054

APA—THE ENGINEERED WOOD ASSOCIATION

Riverfront Square: 2 million square feet of offices, 2,000 residential units, a hotel, public space, and cultural facilities comprise the three-building project. This is slated to be the biggest CLT project in the U.S. to date.

APA—THE ENGINEERED WOOD ASSOCIATION

Additional Resources
As always, I’m not a subject matter expert on CLT. I think it’s a great technology we can implement in parking, and I’d love to talk more about it with anyone who’s interested. Email me at chelsea.webster@getparkplus.com. If you want to research deeper into mass timber, below are some of the sources I recommend.
•GreenSpec: Everything from the history, manufacturing process, use, and performance of CLT. www.greenspec.co.uk/building-design/cross-laminated-timber-design/

•The Future of Timber Construction: Report addressing wood as a building material, trends of the future, the market for wood products, impact of demographics, and changes in society that affect building materials, purposes, and technology. www.clt.info/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Stora-Enso-The-future-of-timber-construction-EN.pdf

•Naturally Wood: Document reviewing wood in an industrial building use case, best practices, applications, and case studies. The main website also provides insights in emerging trends, design, sustainability, and connects you to suppliers in the industry. www.naturallywood.com/sites/default/files/documents/resources/bc_wood_industrial_buildings_0.pdf

APA—THE ENGINEERED WOOD ASSOCIATION

Case Study: Maintenance Planning

tpp-2016-03-case-study-maintenance-planningBy John Burgan, MS, PE

There was a time when parking structure maintenance was new and somewhat
frightening to municipalities. While no longer new, it continues to strain
medium-sized communities, where a high demand for infrastructure spending
combined with small revenue streams pinches budgets. Today’s discussions turn to
operations, technology, and the future. Yet, communities need to continue funding
maintenance. Can what we’ve learned from experience help guide future maintenance
planning? The City of Racine, Wis., may provide some guidance.

Racine, population 80,000, is located along Lake Michigan in the southeast corner of Wisconsin. Like many cities its size, Racine built several parking ramps in the 1980s and ’90s to support downtown businesses. The city started a regular maintenance program in 1995 that continues today.

Parking in the City

The city’s parking structure inventory includes:

  • McMynn: built in 1981, 236 spaces, 70 percent occupancy.
  • Shoop, built in 1986, 215 spaces, 80 percent occupancy.
  • Lake Avenue, built in 1988, 365 spaces, 20 percent occupancy.
  • Gaslight Pointe, built in 1994, 30 percent occupancy.
  • Civic Centre, built in 2002, 409 spaces, fully occupied.

The McMynn ramp is an early post-tensioned structure, and its mild reinforcing is not epoxy coated. It suffers from ongoing delamination of the top steel in the slabs.

The Shoop and Lake Avenue ramps are typical precast double tees with precast beam and columns and poured-in-place pour strips. The tee-to-tee connectors are not protected. Typical maintenance includes sealant replacement and coating of tee-to-tee connectors.

The Gaslight Pointe and Civic Centre ramps are also precast double tees with precast beam and columns, integral pour strips, and stainless steel tee-to-tee connectors. Typical maintenance is limited to sealant replacement.

Trends
The Shoop, Lake Avenue, Gaslight Pointe, and Civic Centre structures are generally in good shape. We expect only standard maintenance items in the foreseeable future, with easily predictable costs.

The McMynn structure will have a more intensive examination in 2016, with a focus on top-of-slab repairs. If deterioration is accelerating, the city will need to consider three options:

  • Minimal maintenance followed by demolition.
  • Extensive rehabilitation.
  • Minimal maintenance followed by replacement.

Unfortunately, revenue trends are unlikely to change. The north side of downtown has excessive supply on workdays but not during special events, when it is used by attendees of the many festivals and events along the city’s lakefront.

The Future
The city needs to be commended for its commitment to maintaining its structures. Yet, as noted above, the city is faced with an oversupply of structured parking that is not cheap to maintain and limited revenue. The city has many competing needs for its infrastructure
budget, and, at the same time, revenue supplied by the state is decreasing.

As Michael J. Maierle, Racine’s transit and parking system manager, asks, “How does one mesh engineering and economic considerations with community and political values?”

The key to success is continued maintenance coupled with long-range planning founded on accurate condition assessments. Likely questions include:

  • Two structures with the highest maintenance costs have the highest occupancy rates. Can the rates in these structures be raised?
  • The McMynn facility is likely to need a major renovation within the next 10 years. Should the city look to alternative sites to provide the supply, or budget for construction of a new structure?
  • The Shoop, Lake Avenue, and Gaslight Pointe structures are located within a few blocks of each other. Lake Avenue and Gaslight Pointe have low occupancy. Should the city look at the likelihood of future development in the area and, if the likelihood is low, consider reducing maintenance expenditures on one or both facilities?

The team considers how to provide information and options to the city, which in turn will decide how to mesh engineering, economics, community values, and politics with a keen eye on the future.

JOHN BURGAN, MS, PE, is structural business development director with R.A. Smith and a member of IPI’s Consultants Committee. He can be reached at john.burgan@rasmithnational.com.

 

TPP-2016-03 Case Study: Maintenance Planning