University of Iowa – Parking Lot Surface Maintenance Planning
LOCATION: University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
CLIENT: University of Iowa
PROJECT SUMMARY:
University of Iowa Parking and Transportation manages operation of 16,000 parking spaces in more than 100 on-campus parking lots and structures. These include approximately 58 surface parking lots, with over 300,000 square yards of pavement. Parking and Transportation’s goal is for the University parking lots to be safe and functional, while aligning with and enhancing the exterior environment on campus. Many times, the parking lots are part of a visitor’s first impression of campus.
These parking lots serve many purposes, including, but not limited to: student parking, faculty/staff parking, general public parking, game day parking for Hawkeye sports, football tailgating, and hospital patient/visitor parking. Most campus parking lots are designated as multi-use, serving routine daily access needs, as well as special events on nights and weekends.
Parking and Transportation strives to provide on-going maintenance to mitigate and slow pavement deterioration in the parking lots, and as funding allows, provide for preventative maintenance to help extend pavement life and lower overall long-term costs.
Anderson Bogert has overseen the planning of maintenance activities at all 58 University of Iowa surface parking lots since 2017. Each year, 10-15 lots are selected for routine maintenance. Anderson Bogert engineers inspect the lots and mark the areas to be repaired. Based on the severity of the defects, our engineers select the best solution to repair alligator cracking, block cracking, longitudinal and transverse cracking, raveling, rutting, corner breaks, joint seal damage, shattered slabs, and spalling (joint and corner). Repairs specified include full depth concrete patching (full and partial panels), asphalt patching (full and partial depth), crack sealing for concrete and asphalt, curb repairs, pavement grinding, and asphalt seal coats.
Anderson Bogert has developed a systematic approach to inspecting pavements, identifying, and recording the location of the defects, determining appropriate repairs, and precisely identifying the location of the repairs on the plans, showing a plan view location for each repair on an aerial photo. Our system for preparing the bid documents, along with our field location of the repairs during construction, allows the contractor to easily bid and construct the project, which helps minimize project cost.
Our specific proven process for pavement maintenance project development, as follows, helps to carefully control the repair quantities, so that the project does not go over budget:
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- During the bid document preparation stage, in the fall typically, an engineer marks all the repairs, then either our drone crew flies the repairs, or our survey crew GPS locates the repairs.
- Then in the spring, prior to construction, our survey crew marks the repairs based on the plans, followed-up by a check of the markings by an engineer.
- Once construction is complete, the survey crew GPS locates the as-built repairs for calculation of quantities for contractor payment and for preparation of the as-built plans.
In addition to the yearly maintenance project, every five years, the University completes a Surface Lot Maintenance Plan to evaluate the existing pavement condition of all 58 parking lots. The goal of this study is to develop a five-year capital improvement plan for the maintenance of surface parking lots throughout campus. Anderson Bogert completed the 2022-2026 Surface Lots Maintenance Plan for the University of Iowa.
