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| Vol.22, No.5 |
| March 15, 2000 |
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More Than Meets the Eye by ROGER WIDMEYER Texas Medical Center News
By almost any measurement, the Smith Lands parking area is big. Its 4,536 parking spaces cover 41 acres. The huge lot was constructed in just seven months by Texas Medical Center to accom-modate contract parkers from several institutions in the TMC, notably, Texas Children's Hospital, The Methodist Hospital and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. The Smith Lands parking area opened Jan. 17; some final remaining construction should be completed by the end of March. "All of the parking facilities on the central Texas Medical Center campus are full," says Joyce Camp, senior vice president, Texas Medical Center. "As was the South Extension Lot. The reality is that the institutions' needs have grown very rapidly and we needed additional parking spaces."
Smith Lands is bordered by South Braeswood, Greenbriar, Old Spanish Trail and N. Stadium Drive. Across Greenbriar is the Meyer lot (a 568-parking space lot for Texas Children's employees) and an additional 405-space lot adjoining the Meyer lot now under construction; this lot is scheduled to open in May. So what kind of parking facility do you get for nearly $10 million? Before construction began in June 1999 on the Smith Lands area, an urban forester inspected each of the trees on the lot and suggested which were in good health and should be saved; 70 trees remain on the lot and will be cared by for Texas Medical Center grounds personnel. Additionally, once the security fence was installed, approximately 200 live oak trees were planted around the perimeter of the entire acreage, along with extensive landscaping that includes thousands of flowing plants. There's no denying that Smith Lands is an attractive parking facility. There was more to being "environmentally friendly" than the trees and flowers, however. To simply cover nearly 31 acres of grass with asphalt would have caused an insurmountable water run-off problem. (The Smith Lands parking area is slightly raised and sloped, so there will be no flooding on the lot during heavy rains.) Creating water detention ponds adequate for safe run-off would have eliminated hundreds of parking spaces. The solution was to install a vast underground water detention area using box culverts, six-by-12-foot cement boxes, strung together on the lot's perimeter, totaling 4,750 linear feet. Additionally, two side-by-side culverts (see photo above) measuring six-by-24-feet run underneath Avenue H, the roadway bisecting the Smith Lands parking area. The box culvert system acts as a detention system that can hold a vast amount of water, allowing it to drain of its own accord into Brays Bayou.
"There is a real value to this land in terms of accommodating vehicle parking, so the above-ground water detention would have been somewhat impractical," says Edwin Friedrichs, senior vice president of Walter P. Moore, an engineering firm that has participated in many Texas Medical Center construction projects and designed the Smith Land parking area. "The box culvert system is an ideal solution and has worked well in many flood-prone areas."
Because a parking lot can become quite dirty from the oil, solvents and other auto drippings - and the trash inadvertently spilled onto it - there is a concern about the water's pollution in the run-off. A feature of the box culvert detention system is designed to capture the contaminants before they are poured into Brays Bayou. Cone-shaped constructions called stormceptors have been installed in the culverts and act as filters. The stormceptors - the small end of the cone is the top, and has a man-hole - are set below the culverts and capture the heavier-than water contaminants in a spiraling downward rush. The oil and debris settle in the bottom of the stormceptors; periodically, they are maintained - the sludge is shoveled out and disposed in an environmentally safe manner. "It's surprising just how much oil and trash can come off a parking surface," says Friedrichs. Intersecting the Smith Lands parking area is Avenue H, connecting Old Spanish Trail on the south to Braeswood on the north. (The City of Houston will be adding signal lights at these entrances, and at an entrance at Greenbriar, within 60 days.) Mid-way on Avenue H are two covered waiting areas where the METRO shuttles stop for the riders. The facilities have attractive restrooms. "The shuttles are running well," says Camp. "Every five, six and eight minutes for their campus destinations during peak hours." There remain a few "finishing touches" to the Smith Lands parking area. Pay phones will soon be installed. Four emergency phones - clearly marked and easy to see from some distance - will be erected by the end of March. Vehicle locator signage will be installed shortly. Covered walkways leading to the shuttle pick-up platforms are being finished.
The Smith Lands parking area is truly a "more than meets the eye" kind of facility.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/03_15_00/page_03.html |
