Charlotte Douglas International Airport Garage

The Charlotte Douglas International Airport, with an average of 600 daily departures, is a rapidly growing airport in the southeastern United States. As the passenger traffic has increased over the past few years, so has the demand for more parking. In late 2004, the airport broke ground to being construction on a 3,000 space parking facility to increase customer-parking capacity by 13 percent. The designer wanted to break away from the normal square, concrete box structure of parking facilities, and envisioned a facility that would mirror the curvature of an airplane wing.

Galvanized steel was specified for its exceptional maintenance-free service life...

In order to accomplish this design, the architect and engineer decided to attach stainless steel cladding to a galvanized structural steel frame. Three hundred tons of hot-dip galvanized steel was used in the project including; bow-string trusses, embed plates and anchors, stair towers, stairways, hand rails, and castellated beams. Galvanized steel was specified for its exceptional maintenance-free service life, overall aesthetic appearance, and compatibility with stainless steel. When used together, galvanized and stainless steel provide a uniform appearance and an economical alternative to specifying stainless steel for the entire structure.

By specifying a hot-dip galvanized coating instead of a paint system, the garage will not require costly maintenance due to the constant vehicle and pedestrian traffic it will accommodate. Furthermore, the galvanized coating will allow the structure to remain a corrosion-free, attractive piece of the airport landscape well into the future.

Coating Thickness

Desc	Read. 1	Read. 2	Read. 3	Read. 4	Read. 5	Avg.
Truss 1	8.90	16.60	8.70	9.10	9.90	10.64
Truss 2	7.80	6.70	8.60	8.30	7.10	7.70
Truss 3	7.50	7.80	7.50	7.30	7.80	7.58
Truss 4	5.00	6.90	5.80	5.10	10.10	6.58
Beam	4.70	4.50	4.40	4.60	3.20	4.28

Details

Award Class

Newly Complete

Award Sectors

Building & Architecture

Environment

Industrial/Urban

Location

Charlotte, NC United States

Download Case Study Detail Sheet

Reasons for Galvanizing

Aesthetics

Components Galvanized

Embed plates, anchors, bow string trusses, stair towers, stair stringers, stair pans, hand rails, and smart beams.

Tonnage/Size

Steel: 300
HDG: 300

Team Members

Specifier

Brian Bresg

Architect

Jeff Adams

Member Galvanizer(s)

Galvan Industries, Inc.

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