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True Grid
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The North Houston Bike Park had two big problems. As North America’s largest BMX bike complex, it will be the site of the pre-2020 Olympics UCI BMX World Championships. The $14 million, 30-acre, extreme sports complex can hold more than 3,500 guests and is a highly visible star for the city.
Unfortunately, the con- struction was approximately $1 million over budget and 100 parking spaces short of the required parking capacity. To further complicate matters, the site is in a flood-prone area of Houston, and it required significant onsite storm water detention.
Lead engineering firms Walter P Moore and Jones & Carter converted the concrete parking lot design to Truegrid Pro Plus permeable paving with an 8 in. limestone base and a black star gravel fill with approval from the Greenspoint Conservancy, which was happy with the natural aesthetic of the gravel-filled Truegrid. The 172,000-sq-ft parking area added 58,000 cu ft of storm water storage capacity to the site by eliminating the separate detention ponds and providing detention capacity in the cross section.
In addition, 100 more parking spaces were added, and roughly $1 million was saved by eliminating detention pond construction, underdrainage elements and the concrete parking lots.
