Benefits of Concrete Parking Lots

Learn how using concrete when building parking lots helps reduce construction costs over other paving systems and enhances the sustainable footprint of your building development. Compare how concrete measures up as the preferred paving system.

Hear first-hand from Volkan Irgit of Lanterra Builders on how CEMEX helped educate his construction team on making key decisions in the paving construction process and how it saved his company time and money.

Concrete pavements can be designed to be competitive with asphalt and last much longer, lowering overall ownership costs. These cost savings often range from 10 to 20% within the first 20 years. Asphalt parking lots, on the other hand, require resealing and sometimes even overlays, which can be expensive. Concrete reduces the urban heat island effect, resulting in reduced carbon emissions. Concrete parking lots are much cooler since they reflect sunlight instead of absorbing it, providing savings on electricity costs in air conditioning for surrounding buildings. Overall lighting requirements are also reduced on a concrete parking lot because of its bright surface.

Stephen Chu, U.S. Secretary of Energy, states: "If you look at all the buildings and make all the roofs white, and if you make the pavement a more concrete-type of color than a black-type of color, and you do this uniformly...it's the equivalent of reducing the carbon emissions due to all the cars in the world by 11 years."

The American Concrete Institute (ACI) developed the Guide for Design and Construction of Concrete Parking Lots, or ACI 330, as a design procedure for concrete pavement construction. When the design is fully implemented, it is optimized to reduce labor costs and construction time. Information included in the guide includes factors such as traffic, soil conditions and the strength of concrete for thickness determination. Quality assurance, maintenance, and repair are also discussed.

CEMEX provides building materials products and services across the U.S. You can reach us at 1-855-CX-BUILD (1-855-292-8453) or at cemex.solutions@cemex.com.

For more information please visit:
http://www.cemexusa.com/rm/rm_ap_pa.html

Category:

Education

Tags:

• CEMEX USA
• concrete
• ready mix
• building materials
• sustainability
• parking lots
• construction
• asphalt
• carbon emissions
• paving
• paving systems
• carbon footprint
• pavement
• construction design
• steel reinforcement
• constructing a parking lot
• repairing a parking lot
• parking lot construction
• construction training
• LEED
• concrete pavement design
• parking lot lighting
• albedo
• urban heat island
• ACI 330
• pavement solutions
• solar reflectivity
• paving solutions
• parking lot safety