Project Overview
This six story, 375,000 ft2 parking structure provides 1,415 parking spaces for a busy Metrolink rail station. The structure includes two elevators, two entrances/exits, and a 101-foot long pedestrian bridge. The roof top parking level is open air.
Since the project represented the first RCTC parking structure for mass transit, the Commission wanted an aesthetically-pleasing design that stood out and that was durable in a seismic hazard area. Another challenge was that the jobsite was adjacent to a fully operational train station and one of Orange County’s busiest freeways.
Precast Solution
The parking structure’s innovative design features a cast-in-place concrete moment frame and 740 architectural precast panels. There are four repeating colors of three-dimensional architectural concrete precast panels along its façade. These 170 decorative architectural precast panels not only used colored concrete, each panel had two colors and multiple depths of etch and reveals; none, light, medium and heavy, which translated to three colors and four textures per panel. Correct panel color, reveal location, and texture location were critical, given that each panel’s final installation was directly next to another on the structure.
The precast design allowed much of the production schedule to be completed at the precast plant. All precast panels were delivered and installed within a mere 21 days and the project was completed nearly 3 months ahead of schedule.
The accelerated schedule afforded by the use of precast saved the RCTC millions. The use of plant architectural precast concrete saved thousands of dollars in panel construction wages because the jobsite had a prevailing wage requirement for all onsite labor. It also allowed room for the other trades to continue work simultaneously onsite without having to work around a casting area for the panels.
|