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PT News

June, 2013

Carl Walker Inc., a nationally recognized consultant in the parking industry, recently announced several promotions: Pat Martin, P.E., has been named Vice President of Restoration; he had led its restoration sector since September 2010. Russ Randall, P.E., a former Project Manager in its Kalamazoo, MI, office, was named a Principal. Ray Smith, P.E., former Managing Principal of the Indianapolis office, has been named Vice President of Structural Engineering & Design. Ray Mulvaney of the Indianapolis office was promoted to Manager of BIM/CAD Design. Doug Gannon, P.E., S.E., also of the Indianapolis office, has been named Manager of Structural Engineering.

Cooper Lighting, a leader at the forefront of transforming the lighting industry, has joined the Green Parking Council (GPC) as a platinum-level partner. Working with the GPC and members, the company will collaborate to develop, implement and accelerate sustainable programs, technologies and standards. It also will assist in educating parking professionals on energy-efficient LED technologies to help transform their facilities into sustainable and environmentally responsible assets.

The Post-Tensioning Institute (PTI), a nonprofit organization for the advancement of post-tensioned, prestressed concrete design and construction, has announced the recipients of the 2013 PTI Project Awards. Fifteen exemplary projects were selected in seven categories, including Project of the Year: Wacker Drive Viaduct, Chicago, Engineers Alfred Benesch & Co. and T.Y. Lin International Group, and PT Suppliers DYWIDAG-Systems International and USA VSL International Ltd. All the winners were honored at the PTI Awards Dinner on May 6 in Scottsdale, AZ, during the institute’s 2013 convention. For more on the awardees, go to its website

(www.post-tensioning.org/pti_awards.php).

Walker Parking Consultants provided functional design/consulting and structural engineering for the University of Missouri Oak Street Parking Structure on its Kansas City campus. The six-level, 1,488-space, precast, pre-stressed concrete structure replaces an existing garage and lot. It provides parking for residents of adjacent residence halls, the performing arts center and university services. Two pedestrian bridges connect the garage to nearby facilities.

Parkmobile USA service has been implemented at Boise (ID) State University. As of mid-April, students, faculty, staff and visitors are able to pay for parking at any signed Parkmobile space on campus with their cellphone using the company’s native mobile applications for the iPhone, Android, Windows 7 and BlackBerry smartphones. They also can choose to pay with an NFC-enabled mobile phone by waving or tapping their phone on any of the company’s NFC-enabled stickers. Boise State becomes the first university in the U.S. where Parkmobile offers NFC capability.

SMC Software, a leading provider of central reservations technology for the parking industry, has launched its first real-time system for U.S. cruise port parking operations, at Port Canaveral in Florida. Cruise passengers are now able to locate the garage near their cruise ship, reserve and pre-pay for parking online 24/7. The fast and friendly pre-booking experience is designed to help passengers eliminate worries about finding a space, or last- minute delays prior to boarding.

The Borough of State College, PA, has selected T2 Systems, along with its partners Digital Payment Technologies, Parkmobile and Genetec, to bring one of the country’s first fully operational license plate-enabled parking (LEP) systems to town. The companies have joined to build a seamlessly integrated parking solution. The vendors say they share the same mission as the borough’s Parking Department – to create the most convenient system for its residents, visitors and Downtown business customers.

The Centennial District Intermodal Transportation Center, at the Philadelphia Zoo, was officially opened in early April. Timothy Haahs and Associates provided parking planning and design, as well as architectural documentation and structural engineering services, for the 683-space, stand-alone structure, which, they say, will prove to be an integral part of the district’s revitalization and development. At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, zoo President and CEO Vikram Dewan expressed the excitement surrounding the transportation center, “not only because it provides parking for zoo visitors, but will also serve the blossoming Centennial District.”

ABM Industries has announced a joint venture between its ABM Government Services unit and Italy-based Building Energy to provide solar energy services to large-scale commercial and utility-scale solar power markets.  The venture will bring the significant experience and financial capabilities of two of the energy industry’s leaders to ABM’s existing 20,000-plus clients.  Its energy businesses and Building Energy have collectively generated more than $1 billion in energy services revenue over the past five years.

The Tilt-Up Concrete Association (TCA) – an international non-profit that serves to expand the use of tilt-up as the preferred building system – has announced the release of “Engineering Tilt-Up.” The TCA’s newest publication is the last in a trilogy of resources covering the architecture, engineering and construction of tilt-up. Written by Timothy W. Mays, Ph.D., P.E. and Joseph J. Steinbicker, P.E., S.E., the 335-page guide breaks down tilt-up design to educate beginners, as well as experienced engineers.

The Harman Group (THG), a structural engineering and parking consultancy firm, has promoted William F. Kavanagh, AIA, NCARB, from Director of Parking Design to Associate. THG said his “expertise in parking garage design complements the firm’s broad range of structural engineering experience in all buildings types, especially on mixed-use projects with parking.”

High Concrete Group is producing precast concrete components for an eight-story parking garage next to the new PPL Center Arena in Allentown, PA, the future home of the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League. The 242,300-square-foot garage, scheduled for completion in late summer 2014, will accommodate visitors to the arena, attending hockey games and special events.

Marlyn Group recently launched uDrive, an online subscription-based solution for parking organizations’ human resources, operations and field audit functions. Available from the company’s website

(www.marlyngroupllc.com), it contains parking specific tools, templates and training modules to support the life cycle of both the company employee and parking location. Each product is developed using institutional standards and parking industry best practices, enabling customers to either establish or improve their internal business processes with little effort.

Don Vennell has joined Richard N. Best Associates as Account Executive. The veteran parking industry sales rep, who has worked with the Best team since 1998, brings 30 years of sales experience to the company. He had been a Regional Sales Representative for 3M (formerly Federal APD), a major PARCS supplier to Best.

Green Courte Partners, a private equity real estate investment firm targeting parking assets and land-lease/manufactured housing communities, has promoted Braden L. Rudolph to Vice President, Asset Management. Since joining the firm as a Senior Associate in June 2011, he has been involved in its acquisitions and asset management efforts. As a VP, Rudolph will continue his role in those efforts, focusing primarily on the near-airport and urban parking sectors.

Scheidt & Bachmann was recently awarded a contract to install a new automated parking system at Hayden Ferry Lakeside, an award-winning mixed-use Parkway Properties project on a 43-acre site at Tempe Town Lake in Downtown Tempe, AZ. The 2,500-space parking facility currently services two Class A office towers totaling more than 500,000 square feet and a 20,000-square-foot retail/office loft. The facility also provides space for events in Downtown Tempe and at Arizona State University.

CreditCall, the specialist payment services provider, has announced that Q-Park Ltd. has switched, in the UK, to the company’s payment services for parking machines and its Virtual Terminal for season ticket payments. Liz Coode of CreditCall said, “Over the years, we’ve developed technology to meet the specific needs of the parking sector.” The company says its unattended payments solution is used “in 20,000 parking terminals each day around the world.”

HID Global, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, is driving an initiative for partners to develop NFC “trusted tag” applications with the launch of its HID Trusted Tag Services software developer tool kit. Operating within its Trusted Identity Platform, the HID software is the company’s latest NFC innovation that offers a “cloud-based” service designed to “confer trust and provide security to readily available NFC tags.”

Finfrock, the “largest designer, manufacturer and constructor of parking structures in the US,” has signed design-build contracts for a new parking structure in Central Florida and one in Colorado. A

1,600-space garage will be delivered in December 2013 for the new I-Drive Live retail complex on International Drive in Orlando. Additionally, 467 parking stalls will be completed by November 2013 for The District at Campus West, a housing project serving students of Colorado State University in Fort Collins. The two contracts total nearly $20 million.



 


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