b'PARKINGBOI55pre-2020 levels. When the project resumed in 2021, they came up with a strategy to help airport operations continue unabated.The airport signed a two-year lease for a nearby parking lot, purchased shuttles and hired drivers to transport employees back and forth. Valet parking added about 200 spaces for the public, and BOI braced for a squeeze. During Spring Break this year, close-in parking was completely full, and the economy lot had fewer than 100 spaces left at peak. Not surprisingly, managing demand and inventory was in sharp focus. Behind the scenes, the project required traffic pattern adjustments. For the construction of the East public garage, we had to reroute short-term parking traffic through the existing garage, Briggs explains. We cut out a wall and built a temporary road to reconstruct the exit and toll plaza, which was unique and challenging. The asphalt road was in place for four to five months while crews built the new pedestrian bridge, toll plaza and ticket office. Then, the temporary road was dismantled and the garage wall rebuilt. After the ticket office and surface parking were ready, traffic resumed on its original path.D vs. OWalker Consultants helped the design team win the project bid with an alternate ramping system it says saved BOI $3 million to $5 million. Instead of sticking with the circular ramp in the original proposal, Designer Darrell Gallegos and the team from Walker a great deal of patience, grit and strategy. Now that both garagessuggested a ramp that looks like the letter D are finished, the BOI team can take a breath and start planningfrom above, because its conventional framingDARRELL GALLEGOSfor the next influx.decreases construction time and cost. In contrast, a circular ramp would have required Function and Form much more concrete due to its shape and The airport spent $60 million of its own money to design and buildconstruction requirements. this two-year project. Both new structures were engineered toThe existing garage has two single-be highly functional and visually stunning: the employee garage,threaded helicesone inbound and one which faces a nearby highway, is adorned with a river design tooutbound, explains Engineer of Record represent the Boise River Valley. Not far away, the rooftop spacesBob Stanley. For the size structure we wereBOB STANLEYof the East Garage afford views of the city skyline, nearby foothills,building, the original concept had shown airport terminals and airfield runways. Ardurra Group, the civil andtwo more helices, and that was going to be landscape firm that worked on the project under designer/architectoverkill. Instead, we combined those into one of record CSHQA, helped enhance the aesthetics.singular helix. Its more constructible and still I really liked how the landscaping turneddrives well. out in front of the employee garage, saysFormwork and concrete construction are Justin Bilbrey, a designer from Ardurra. Wevery expensive, Stanley explains, so to have installed some custom 8-foot-wide planterstwo sets of formwork would have negativelyJILL SINGERalong the north side of the garage facing theimpacted the budget. freeway, and it serves as a nice visual. With the D ramps, we are able to accommodate the same The garage project has been in the worksamount of traffic and not take up a larger footprint, notes BOI for quite some time. The airport kicked it offJUSTIN BILBREY Project Manager Jill Singer. with design work in 2019 and had planned to start constructionAfter winning the bid, the CSHQA/Walker/Ardurra team started in 2020, but the global COVID crisis decimated travel for severalmapping out the plan. months. Taking a beat, BOI executives decided to pause the plan until they could get a better feel for when traffic might return to AirportImprovement.comJuly | August 2024'