TrafficInfraTech Magazine Linking People Places & Progress
Airports, malls, hospitals, railway junctions all present formidable challenges in traffic management and are seeing significant benefits from using integrated parking management solutions. A case in example is of Terminal T4 at Barajas International Airport, Madrid where, ParkHelp, MassTrans India’s partner, implemented a total parking solution. (Snapshot provided below)
Spain’s Barajas International Airport is the 13th busiest airport in the world and witnessed 48.2 million passengers in 2009. A free minibus that provides connectivity to its four terminals, also takes the passengers to the parking area for longer stays. Moving walkways are another mode connecting one terminal with the other.
The Service
ParkHelp has provided parking for T4 on six floors with five floors having more than 9,000 spaces. The parking is for short and long stays with and short parking time of 30 minutes is provided to specific sectors. VIP Parking is reserved for passengers with reduced mobility.
The Challenge
Providing maximum accessibility to all the available spots in the shortest time, successfully creating different areas within the car park according to specific needs (like special spaces for people with reduced mobility) and efficiently managing the parking facility were its biggest challenges.
The Solution
ParkHelp worked around the problem to everyone’s benefit by drawing heavily from the latest technology available. It installed sensors and indicator lights (green & red with blue being used in areas that were reserved for people with reduced mobility) in the 9000 bays. It also installed informative boards at the entrances to the buildings, as well as on different levels and lanes, for directing the vehicle owners to the vacant bays. Along with this, a software package was provided as an independent tool to manage the car park facility. The plant concentrators operate independently.
Solutions implemented
ParkHelp used 9,000 indoor sensors, 150 corridor panels, 9,000 green/red and blue indicators, 60 traffic counters and signals for people with reduced mobility. It also opted for 30 plant concentrators, one parking panel at the entrance to the parking area, six module concentrators, one semi-parking panel, 90 area concentrators, one parking concentrator, 30 floor level panels and six module panels as a part of the solution.
The Result
The solution led to very positive results because now, the motorists have easy access to the spaces. As a result, long queues on peak days or during peak hours are avoided. Also, the special places can now be easily identified and respected. The information is updated in real-time through an efficient software for managing the parking intelligently, enabling areas as needed, for example, by filling up specific areas first and therefore, saving on energy costs in the empty areas. The modules operate independently. Therefore, if there is a problem in one of the modules, the rest would not be affected (after one of the modules faced an attack, the rest had continued to operate without any problem).