Shady Grove Station Parking StructureMontgomery County, Md |
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Most Washington, D.C., commuters have good words to say for the Metro rapid transit system. Service is frequent, the trains and stations are clean, and it is safe, even at night. But when a commuter wanted to ride the train into the heart of the city from a suburban stop, the best advice has been: “Get there early.” The parking lots and garages usually filled to capacity quickly. To alleviate that, system administrators are constructing a number of parking structures at suburban locations, using precast concrete components to speed construction and reduce initial costs. One such project is the new structure at Shady Grove, a terminus of Metro’s busy red line about a mile north of Rockville, Md. The facility, built almost entirely of precast concrete, gives Shady Grove’s 13,000 daily commuters an additional 2,050 spaces, bringing the total at the location to 5,467 spaces. |
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“We wanted to fit the symmetry of the Metro system and not build just another garage,” says Kassa Seyoum, project manager for the Montgomery County Public Works & Transportation Department, the structure’s owner. “When we planned the garage, we looked at three important elements: time of construction, initial cost and long-term life-cycle costs. We believe precast saved up to 10 percent in initial cost and time of construction.” The precast components, 1,949 in all, were produced by the Shockey Precast Group of Winchester, Va. “Has the facility been received favorably? Ask any commuter from Shady Grove,” enthuses Nick Kolar, project manager for Shockey. “They think it’s the best thing since sliced bread. It’s just a stone’s throw from the station platform. We’ve also received very favorable comments on the architecture and the appearance of the sand-blasted finish. It’s not your typical cookie-cutter box. It has character.” building measures 192 feet in diameter and contains 125,255 square feet of space, according to George Diestelkamp, property manager for El Paso County. Its six stories are divided into three sets of two stories, each with its own floor where the guard station, day room and dining hall are located. When it opens next February, it will have room for 864 prisoners.Full Article Download
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