Ballston Parking Garage - Fairfax, Virginia

The Ballston Parking Garage is an existing 3500 space, six story exterior parking structure located in Fairfax, Virginia. Our project consisted of removing 1,500 strip fixtures and installing 1,200 new low bay fixtures. Not the biggest undertaking for an experienced electrical contractor. Add to the process a mandate to keep the garage active and an aggressive schedule and the fun begins.

To compensate for the difficulties of keeping the garage active and the schedule, Primo Electric prefabricated 30,000 feet or rigid conduit in our offsite warehouse. This was an intense undertaking that involved a detailed walk through of the facility prior to commencing the project; an intricate identification scheme for each stick of conduit was designed. The conduit layout was driven by the fixture locations, mounting height and the large support beams that existed in the structure. The blueprints were labeled and the conduit prefabrication begun. Once the conduit was bent to the correct measurements, the installation started. The installation process was developed through a sectional matrix, which divided the structure by floor, parking deck quadrants and the spiral entrance and exit ramps.

This prefabrication process and installation design were innovative solutions that ultimately limited the on-site work, which contributed to the minimization of the garages service interruptions and was the driving force in our success on the project.