Macomb Community College Parking Lots
The Project
Repaving Macomb Community College South Campus’s Parking Lots 4, 5, 11, and 12. The parking lots serve both student and staff and are located at the northeast and south portions of the campus. Key improvements to the site include repaving, green infrastructure infiltration basins, secured faculty lot with gated entrance, barrier free access, and electric vehicle parking stations.
Our Services
Spalding DeDecker provided engineering and surveying services for the College. Our survey team provided topographical surveys for approximately 22+/- acres of parking lot and boulevard. Site engineering included construction plan documentation such as paving, grading, and utility plans. Spalding DeDecker also provided continuous construction engineering involvement that resulted in immediate action for solutions to unforeseen issues, owner-engineer-contractor discussions for design changes and immediate implementation, and minimal punch list items.
The Challenge
The existing parking lots experienced a well-lived service life but maintained old-school traditional design. The site was vast with pavement, provided catch basin-to-storm sewer design, lacked barrier free access, used bumper blocks for barriers, and asphalt curbs as perimeter protection. The challenges included improving the parking lots based on current storm water guidelines and regulations, modifying the site
for barrier free access, implementing electric vehicle stations for the new wave of automobile technology, provide a pavement that will serve the campus for years, and maintaining improvement within project budgets.
The Solution
Spalding DeDecker completed the designs to accommodate the College’s desires while maintaining project budgets and local requirements. The solutions included the following:
- Provide “Mix of fixes” for asphalt improvements including asphalt pulverization, mill and overlay and
full depth reconstruction. Several improvement methods appropriate for the condition of the existing pavement were required to manage costs with budgets. - Provide infiltration basins at several locations at the existing low points and utilized the existing catch basin structures as basin overflows. The infiltration basins allow water to recharge groundwater while slowing down the stormwater runoff release rate.
- Improved site grading for barrier free access.
- Coordinated with the project electrical engineer to provide electric vehicle stations.
- Provided secure entry for faculty parking lot. The parking area was designed with a perimeter of
infiltration basins for the “barriers”. In addition, a new keyed and gated entry was designed and installed.
The Impact
The improvements are expected to serve Macomb Community College’s students and faculty for years. The barrier-free access, secured faculty parking lot, and electric vehicle areas are improvements that are important amenities the College lacked. Furthermore, the stormwater infiltration basins will improve the local ecology by recharging the groundwater, slow discharge rates that lessen the impacts to local water systems and improve the life of the natural ecosystem.
