Type: Airports
Project Name: Airport Rental Car and Parking Operational Study
City: Washington
State: DC
Client: Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA)

Features: The purpose of this study was to provide the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA) with an operational parking plan for its garages at Reagan National Airport during a vertical expansion of the A, B/ C Parking Garages. This plan incorporated reassignment of rental car locations and daily parking accommodations during construction and as the final configuration with the newly added levels of parking.

Description: To begin this study, current airport inventory, operational/enforcement procedures and daily vehicle traffic volumes were reviewed. In addition to this data, transit routing and shuttle rider-ship figures were also reviewed. To evaluate potential solutions, current and potential parking and traffic flow configurations were created in an effort to reduce traffic to traffic, and traffic to pedestrian conflict points as well as to provide seamless service to rental car agencies on site.

The next step of this study involved examining the phasing of construction to produce final recommendations that worked with the diverse needs to access various areas of the existing structure by the general contractor during the construction of the additional floors. An evaluation of stripping, existing parking policy and parking access and revenue control systems presently in place was conducted. Alternate garage scenarios were provided to maximize available parking space inventory and traffic flow during the construction phasing.

The final step of our work included providing recommendations for new traffic patterns and access and revenue control programs given the fact the garage user groups were split with levels of transient parking on levels both below and above the rental car agencies with no additional external ramps added.

As a result of this work, the final recommendations helped MWAA better manage daily parking demand and rental car operations at Reagan National Airport during construction and as finally configured with the additional levels of parking added.