Misfit Engineers Solving One Problem At A Time:
Group Proposal Project for the Construction of an Upgraded Parking Lot at City College
Hasan Gjokaj, Anik Das & Adrian Criollo
11/04/2019
Introduction:
“DAY PARKING PERMITS FOR THE FISCAL YEAR JULY 2019 TO JUNE 2020 ARE SOLD OUT.” This statement is posted on the City College website for parking implying that all parking spots are sold out until the end of next year’s semester. The lack of parking spaces creates the students to get to school late, wasting time looking for parking around the school, and makes them constantly stress about getting to class on time. This is a critical issue that must be resolved as soon as possible, as this affects students who rely on their cars for daily transportation. We gathered as a cooperative group and proposed a solution to this issue surrounding the college community. To resolve the lack of issues we propose to upgrade our current parking lot into a parking lot with multiple stories. As we continued to proceed with our intent, we created a survey and questioned how many students use the college parking lot. Also, if they had a chance to have their own parking space would they commute to school by car. Besides questioning students from City College we had to research how to properly go about constructing multiple floors to eliminate the restricted number of parking spaces on campus. With parking spaces not being available until next year, many students are at a state of panic regarding how they have to survive daily for parking outside of college grounds. If we don’t fix this problem soon, this recurring issue with continue on and when newly freshmans come City College won’t have a chance to park until they graduate. With our proposal, we will put an end to the parking issue at City College, creating more opportunities for parking spaces and an effective method of relieving numerous students stress about parking.
Survey Results:
Figure 1: This pie chart depicts the results of 100 students being asked if they utilize the City College parking lot.
Figure 2: This pie chart demonstrates the second question asked to the 40 individuals who answered “no” to the first question.
Cost:
The average parking garage will consist of a space of about 140,000 square meters, this is assuming that the parking garage will be five storeys. For the purposes of City College the parking garage we want to construct will only consist of two storeys, this will greatly reduce the cost of the materials and shorten the time in which it takes for the parking garage to be constructed. The parking lot located at City College only consists of about 50,000 square feet further reducing the cost of materials and labor. The average rate of construction for a parking garage is about 59 dollars per square foot of space bringing the construction cost to about 2,950,000 dollars. To construct a parking garage it consists of many different people who are in charge of many different tasks. The construction will need a contractor, an architectural firm or a licensed architect, a crew of subcontractors, and the developer, which in our case is going to be the school. There will be an extensive amount of prep for the site, and costs to operate heavy machinery. The architects will usually take two to three percent of the total cost. In our case the architect will cost roughley sixty to seventy thousand dollars while the contractors will cost a rate of about twenty five to twenty seven percent of the total budget. The contractors will run about eight hundred thousand dollars. The rest of the cost will go into the building materials and other materials needed. The services done by the workers will consist of setting up steel framing for the structure, concrete block backup and construction, brick facing on the entirety of the structure, as well as masonry, carpentry, plumbing and electrical services, such as fire alarms, lights, exit signs, etc.
Action Plan:
- Conducting a survey: The first step in this process would be to conduct a survey to determine if creating a multimillion dollar structure is something that is in demand. We need to determine if the construction will be profitable. We cannot force the students to pay for a parking garage that will not be wanted or needed. We asked 100 students in City College what their opinions of parking issues in the school were and we determined that the construction of the parking garage is in demand, this gives us the green light to continue with the process.
2)Permit: Different places have different permit requirements. In New York you will need a professional engineer or registered architect of begin the permit process. Next an examiner will review the project and either approve or deny the permit. Then the SNAPSHOT process takes effect, SNAPSHOT is an online tool which will examine the location of the new project and determine the cost and types of permits needed for the new building to begin construction. Next it will file application and construction drawings, obtain department plan approval for the project, file and pull permits where needed, perform work approval. Next an inspector will examine the site and approve or deny a certificate of occupancy letter of completion.
3) Demolition/Excavation: This step will consist of the removal of any old vehicles or any vehicles still on the premises. Whatever is left over will be thrown away and labeled as debris being thrown away with everything else.
4) Concrete construction Process: Before this process begins an inspector will be sent to conduct an inspection and approve the permit needed for the concrete construction to begin. Concrete slabs will be the first step in the process. Once the slabs are poured they will be able to be walked on within the next day, but building on top of the newly poured concrete will take approximately two weeks. Double Tees will be the first thing cast, double tees are typically long casts ranging from 300 to 600 ft. They are lined with steel with relatively set dimensions within the slab. The double tees are then stresses from one end to the other in order to provide maximum strength to the structure.
5) Beams: The next step is to install beams into the structure. These have long lined steel forms which are usually about 200 ft. Different types of beams are required for different locations on the parking garage. There are tee beams, L beams, and inverted tee beams. The beams are placed with their steel being oriented in the exact position then poured over to set it. The beams will help reinforce the structure when the building begins to deform and shift providing much needed strength to the overall integrity to the structure.
6) Spandrels and Walls: This step is not required, but will provide extra strength to the structure. A flat piece of steel with a length of 200 to 400 ft will be placed in the required locations. The next step requires a decision to be made, does the project manager want the steel to be pre stressed not. Stressing the steel will give greater strength to the structure but this is not required.
7) Columns: This is a very important process in the construction. Four exterior columns will be placed, each one being lined with pre stressed beams or spandrels. All exterior and interior columns will be the same size. Pre stressing the columns allow for much longer columns to se set. The interior columns will be installed the same way but can have additional haunches built with the interior columns to increase strength.
8) Doors and Windows: This step requires only requires that the openings of the doors and windows have a production tolerance checked to make sure there is no structural damage.
9) Pre Pour Inspection: Every step listed in the process needs to be inspected before being poured to make sure that the beams, columns, spandrels and other structures are in the correct location and the correct orientation.
10) Post Pour Inspection: this step is required to determine if any of the locations poured have structural damage or cracks that can affect the structural integrity of the building.
11) Finishes: after the concrete is poured, set, and inspected they can put the finishing touches. The double tees should be roughened up to allow more friction between the vehicles and the ground, the beams and columns require a light brushing. Sand blasting is finally applied to the structure to give it a better finish.
Benefits:
“Great changes may not happen right away but with effort, even difficulty may become easy.” by Bill Blackman. You might have a good plan. That plan may not sound good to people, however, if that plan catalyzed to real work, after a certain period of time people will start to appreciate that plan. It will happen since they will start to get benefits out of that plan. So do our plan which may not look good to many people, however, it will be beneficial to many people who come from far away almost every day and have trouble with parking their vehicle. “Even though parking is a disaster I still rather drive. It’s a give and takes; I sleep less because I have to get up earlier to find parking but it’s cheaper than taking the Metro-North” by Sandra Martinez, a senior student, who comes from New Rochell to CCNY every day. There are many Sandra Martinez facing these parking issues until now. Therefore, we should develop our parking area by trying something new which is not actually a new idea but could be new to the college. We are proposing two stories parking which will be able to deduct student’s sorrows by half since college will be able to offer twice the number of parking than before. It will take a long time, however, those who come from a long distance will be benefitted.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, upgrading parking area might not be a good idea to the college however, it will be very beneficial for those students who come from far by driving a vehicle. Not all students live in the city who can use the subway. But sometimes subway gets worse and consumes huge amount of time for many technical difficulties. As a result many students miss their class. If we have two stories parking lot which not only increase the number of parking but also decrease the sorrow of students who face trouble with parking every single day in the college. CCNY will be a role model to other college if they make our proposal happen by making an elevator parking lot.
Team Section:
Adrian Criollo is a 1st year full time undergraduate Electrical Engineering student at The City College of New York. He grew up in Jackson Heights and recently graduated from Aviation High School, where he obtained vast mechanic skills, as well as knowledge. At Aviation High School, he was granted the opportunity of obtaining two A&P licenses to work in the airline. During his time in Aviation he joined Honor Society and Science Leadership, balancing his technical and academic classes must have been difficult but it was beneficial. Also, currently he is interning at MTA New York City Transit where he is spending time with professional architects and engineers. Some fun facts about him are that during his spare time he enjoys playing soccer and video games.
Anik Das, sophomore CCNY student, studying Mechanical Engineering. He came from Bangladesh and graduated from John Adams High School. He is highly interested in mechanical instruments. Currently he is in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Club (ASME) at CCNY where he gets to know many students from the same study area. Some fun facts about him are that he loves to play Cricket and spend time with his high school friends.
Works Cited: http://www.ccnycampus.org/2011/10/park-it/
“How To Obtain A Permit.” How to Obtain a Permit, www1.nyc.gov/site/buildings/business/how-to-obtain-a-permit.page.
This entry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.
