Revolutionary
Parking Solutions
In large cities worldwide, space for carparking is a growing problem.
The capacity to add multi-level garages is shrinking as suitable land is unavailable or too expensive. Cities are becoming protective of their green spaces and concerned with how parking garages compromise the quality and character of their cityscapes.
UPark garage modules are positioned underwater, eliminating the need for building sites.
Bodies of water promise a new solution for city parking spaces. UParks are submerged and securely moored in bays, lakes, rivers, estuaries, sea channels, harbors, etc. Cars enter as usual from street level. The standard-sized parking garages accommodating 467 cars can be individually produced or serially manufactured in one size: 120m long, 35m wide, 16m high. Multiple garages can be installed side by side. Serial production is common in the aircraft and automobile industries, but would be revolutionary for parking garage manufacturing.
Patents: US Nr. 4.954.035 / EU Nr. 0.313.761
Patents: US Nr. 4.954.035 / EU Nr. 0.313.761
A surprisingly simple assembly process.
The UPark garage is a watertight concrete or steel-and-concrete caisson with two access channels for entry and exit leading to and from a land-based platform. The UPark is built, floated to the site, submerged, ballast weighted, secured and the two access channels are connected. Water is pumped out, the system is equipped with the necessary installations, and the new parking garage is open for business.
The genius of the UPark concept is twofold: its potential for standard assembly line production, and its use of water zones to hide garages out of site.
The production process, from ordering to implementation, can be streamlined. Costs can be calculated precisely upfront. Little or no complex excavation is required. Unexpected construction delays and their additional costs are avoided (archeological finds, accidental damage to utilities, or traffic disruption.)
Why every thriving city near water will want one?
No real estate purchases also mean huge savings. As a rule, bodies of water are public property so building permits are not normally required. Only formal certification from a Classification Society is required for construction and installation at the site.
Conventional garages require architects and general planners for site-specific garage individualization — a complex, time-consuming, and costly process. Not U-Parks, which sidestep the purchasing of property, architectural planners, and construction and excavation expenses. Costs can be calculated precisely. Unexpected delays like archeological finds, accidental damage to utilities, and traffic disruption during construction, are avoided.
A UPark is an elementary, inexpensive, prefabricated shipping container-like structure. Once settled into position underwater, two access channels are mounted and ballastis placed on top to counter buoyancy. The UPark is quickly and effectively positioned, secured and ready for use.
During tornadoes, storms, fires, earthquakes or seaquakes, a UPark is the safest place to be. Surrounding water supports, insulates, buffers, reduces pressure and cools. Unlike parking garages under skyscrapers, UParks are unlikely targets for terror attacks as they neither house large numbers of people at any time, nor endanger nearby buildings.
Underwater carparks safeguard the flora and fauna of citycapes and provide underwater “parks” for marine life. Their upper surfaces restore lost shallows for spawning fish and amphibians. Underneath, a protected refuge for marine flora and fauna develops naturally.
Environmentalists support UParks because they are sustainable, they protect green zones and they restore lost marine life habitats.
UPark’s are both ecological and sustainable. They help protect precious land and the animals living above and below ground, as well as underwater. They minimize the energy waste lost in the construction of conventional parking garages, also avoiding excavation and disposal of land, its transportation and dumping.
Three UPark garages in Downtown Miami
We’ve received an inquiry proposing to position three UPark garages in the slip beside American Airlines Arena. The best partnering company will be the first to provide an underwater parking garage in the U.S.A. If you would like to be our manufacturing partner, please contact us.
Visionary manufacturing partnerships
We partner with leading civil engineers and parking management system experts to ensure each UPark’s technology and design is contemporary and expert led, from design to realization. If you represent an engineering, offshore or a shipbuilding company with the necessary know-how, please contact us. You will be invited to submit estimates for the production, delivery and assembly of the three UParks in Miami. Please request the project description and invitation to tender by e-mailing info@underwaterparking.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Safe, functional underwater garages do exist. In 1972, the Swiss built an underwater garage in Lake Geneva which is still functioning today. Thirteen years ago, they extended it to accommodate eight hundred more cars.
Watertight UParks have a fifty-year warranty against corrosion and are subjected to both the strict regulation of international control agencies for shipbuilding and local safety regulations. UPark has two access ramps for security.
UParks will be built and assembled according to our design by an offshore or a shipbuilding company near the chosen location. Please contact us if you’d like to collaborate.
Contact
For inquiries in English, please call +41 79 516 98 60
For inquiries in German, please call +41 44 261 90 21
E-mail us at: info@underwaterparking.com
Our mailing address is:
Submarine Fittings Ltd
Wolfbachstrasse 15
8032 Zurich, Switzerland