Floating Car Parks
Finding new car park locations in crowded city centres can be a difficult and costly exercise. Other potential obstacles include; financial viability, planning procedures, environmental considerations and infrastructural implications. Therefore it is not surprising that Local Authorities, car park owners and car park operators are searching for new possibilities to provide environmentally friendly and cost effective parking facilities.
Floating and ‘mobile’ parking constructions provide a possible answer. Dutch Docklands in cooperation with Park4All and Quadriga Limited offers an innovative, durable and flexible parking solution.
The floating foundation of the car parks exists of a concrete and EPS-foam sandwich with a light weight floor. The worldwide patented building system for floating bases allows for on-shore construction/assembly of prefab components without the usually required dry-dock.
The construction of the car park with an ultra light, flexible and modular garage-system can be realized in just a couple of weeks. A smart combination of a solid steel construction and a lightweight glass composite floor provides a ‘meccano’-system. This system is completely modular and prefabricated and therefore easy to deliver worldwide.
The combination of these two systems makes the floating car parks a durable and cost effective solution that can be compared with similar cost prices as a multi-storey parking building with a piled foundation.
The system of ultra light parking decks results in lower demands for the floating foundation. The maximum number of parking stories depends on the water current and the width of the floating car park necessary for a stable construction. An average floating car park of three stories has a draught of 2.5 metres. The local fluctuations of the water level define the costs for the entrance and exit. There are extra procurements for sediment transport so that this will never effect the water quality.
Beside the common pressure on parking spaces there is another advantage of floating car parks. The floating car parks are dynamic in terms of location and very easy to move to different places. Therefore a floating car park can also be a solution for events such as the Olympic Games where the need for extra temporary parking places is very high.
The possibility to move the floating car park from location to location makes it an even more profitable option especially within a large waterfront area as it offers additional business opportunities for temporary water bound parking space.
In summary, some key benefits include: -1. Cost effective 2. The releasing of land previously designated for car park construction for additional use e.g. housing, commercial, green space etc. 3. Flexible positioning 4. Environmental Benefits 5. Planning 6. Fast project completion
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