Tyler, Texas

Key Players

Owner City of Tyler

Lead Design Firm Walker Parking Consultants

General Contractor Manhattan Construction Co.

Fair Plaza Garage includes 384 parking spaces, a new 5-ft by 12-ft precast storm culvert beneath it, a new sanitary line and a generator for emergency power.

The garage sits over what was once a creek bed. At one point, the creek was converted into a brick storm culvert and upgraded to a precast storm culvert as part of the project; however, the culvert ran diagonally across half the garage, making it impossible to use only one type of foundation system.

As a value-engineering option, the city elected to proceed with geopiers in lieu of conventional drilled piers. The geopiers were paired with standard drilled piers that supported beams to span the box culvert as it ran underneath the garage. This process was heavily coordinated and discussed through the design phase with the owner, architect and contractors to ensure that construction costs were kept at a minimum and impacts to the schedule were minimized.