September-October 2022 - 9

PARKING
Things to Consider
Rayfield said one of the biggest
requests from clients when building
a parking garage is that it be as
close as possible to the terminal for
traveler convenience.
" When we first started planning for
Asheville, there was a lot of discussion
about several potential alternate locations
for that garage, " Rayfield said,
" ... Ultimately they made the decision
knowing that the garage would be
their premium parking product and
wanted to have it as close and convenient
as possible to the terminal for
that reason. "
When keeping the client in mind,
Rayfield said for airports, you really
want to think about the benefits of a
sloped garage or flat-surface garage.
" One of the things with an airport
garage that you do a little different
than, say, a shopping mall or an
office building garage is you want all
your parking to be on a flat surface, "
Rayfield said. " So, a parking garage
in a corporate setting is often a sloped
driving surface with parking there,
but considering passengers unloading
baggage, potentially having children
with strollers and things like that, you
always want all of the parking to be
flat, so your ramping structure and
your parking structures are somewhat
different in that respect. "
Another major item to consider is
wayfinding, especially in larger garages.
" Just in general wayfinding is always
a challenge for airports, " Rayfield said.
" Garages are massive. They don't have
the same kind of turnover that office
or retail garages have. They have different
turnover for that, and so that's
what drove the parking count facility
technology [HUB] at Norfolk. And
that's provided by a vendor that works
directly with the access control system
at the airport. "
Key Features at Norfolk
Real-Time Space Counts
" You provide the information about
spaces that are available for each level
and then on the ramp, as you're circulating
up, you have a sign at every level
Norfolk International Airport
that tells you how many total spaces
are available, but also tells you how
many accessible spaces are available
on each level, " Rayfield said. " The
system generally just counts cars in
and out for each level, but the accessible
spaces actually use video camera
and use video analytics to determine
the availability of the spaces because
there's a few of them on each level, so
that they're located immediately adjacent
to the elevators. A lot of airports
will consider their garages to be full
before they get to a 100 percent capacity.
They won't send you to a level
driving around looking for that last
one or two spaces. They may consider
full to be 90 percent or 95 percent full
so there's always spaces there. "
Cast-in Versus Precast
" The garage at Norfolk is a cast-inplace
garage and it has a little bit higher
first cost, but a lower cost to maintain,
and that cost is also somewhat
driven by region and where you're
pricing it, and so it was enough of
a cost differential in Asheville that
they needed to go with the pre-cast
garage, " Rayfield said. " Being a castin-place
garage, it allows you to have
a lower profile structural system as
opposed to a precast garage that has
the deeper double T concrete beams
in them and so it gives you the ability
to have a little bit better line of sight
and lighting in there that you're not
blocked off from lighting and signage. "
Energy-saving Lighting
" The lighting system is a little bit
unique in there in that you essentially
have three elements to the lighting
design, " Rayfield said. " First of all,
the lighting at the perimeter of the
garage during day times, won't turn
on because they're getting enough
natural light in so you're not burning
lighting at the perimeter where you're
already getting day lighting coming
in from the outside. Another thing is
the lighting drops to a very low level
and all the light fixtures have motion
sensors in them so that when vehicles
or passengers are walking through,
they elevate to a brighter lighting
level. So, there are some energy saving
components to that, you can minimize
the amount of energy you're spending
burning lighting in a garage that's
mostly empty other than when people
come and go during peak times. "
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 9
Norfolk International Airport
http://www.AVIATIONPROS.COM
September-October 2022

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