Asphalt to be placed at parking deck

Last week, a crew working with S&F Concrete completed the final pour at the parking deck. Asphalt is scheduled to be placed this week in the lower level of the deck up to the ramp.

As explained in an earlier post, visitors will enter from Dorchester Ave and drive on to the top level of the parking deck. The entryway ramp will be centered to the parking deck. The ramp itself is 32 feet wide, to accommodate traffic in either direction coming in and out of the garage, by approximately 25 feet long.

The upper parking deck will have 46 parking spaces and there will be 43 spaces in the lower deck. There will be an additional 6 spaces separate from the parking garage at the North end of the building.

The majority of the parking deck, including the entire upper parking deck is a concrete surface. One section, however, from the base of the ramp at the south side of the parking deck down to the lower level and the first section of the parking decking will be bituminous asphalt. In the lower level of parking deck along the abutter’s side, two vent windows were put in place to create cross ventilation. Asphalt will smoke and burn during a fire, so fire code requires proper ventilation in areas asphalt will be used.

Due to the concrete retaining wall along the north section, the lower level in this area of the garage will be concrete, which will crack under heat but will not smoke/burn as asphalt does.

The blueprint below highlights the area of the ramp and lower level of the garage that will be covered in asphalt instead of concrete. The pink highlights indicate the vent windows along the abutter’s side of the garage. The rendering below the prints shows that the Expressway side of the lower parking deck will be open, allowing air to move freely into the space.