With an enrollment of 4,000 students, the university is located near the city of San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles.
General contractor Bomel Construction Co., Anaheim Hills, Calif., is the general contractor for the $17.1-million, 464,000-square-foot structure. Construction began in October. International Parking Design, Sherman Oaks, Calif., is the architect for the design-build project.
Construction of the 464,000-square-foot garage will be finished at the end of 2013. This will be the third garage on campus; two others in close proximity have a total of about 1,130 stalls. Once it’s completed, the new parking garage will have 1,171 stalls and allow the school to advance to its next phase of expansion: the construction of two multi-story patient towers.
The new garage will be located between Prospect Street and the West Hall building, directly across from the university’s medical center. About 90% of the garage’s users will be Loma Linda University employees. There will be a small area for Emergency Room parking on the first level. Instead of a controlled gate, the garage will have a license plate reader for employees. Guests will pay at a walk-up window.
“We’ve already removed one road and created another that’s about 600-feet long that will be the entrance to the parking structure,” said Kasey Shay, Bomel’s senior project manager.
Five university-owned homes used for various school purposes were abated before Bomel handled their demolition. Bomel is also charged with re-routing all utility and storm drains.
Project principals say a helix ramp may be the most interesting part of the parking structure.
Unlike most garages, where cars move from floor to floor within the structure itself, a helix, or spiral, ramp on the outside edge of the garage allows drivers to advance to each floor without actually driving on each floor, a process that has a number of advantages.
