By Yuling Chen, EDITOR

Big city malaise is not new in China where road expansions try to keep up with automobile ownership. In the meantime, cities are figuring out more viable solutions to deal with the limited space by making full use of vertical space.

When it comes to the megacity in Southwest China, Chongqing has its first intelligent three-dimensional parking lot in Jiulongpo District.

On January 2, 2019, an intelligent stereo-mechanical parking lot started its trial operation in Jiulongpo District. As Chongqing’s first of its kind, the parking facility serves as an intelligent multi-entrance tower garage with the world’s fastest access speed.

387 vehicles with 1/5 area of a traditional parking lot

“With the same number of parking spaces, a traditional single-story parking lot needs an area of 3,870 square meters. This calculation is on the basis of a parking space occupying an area of about 10 square meters.” According to the construction side, the multi-story garage only uses around the one-fifth area of a traditional one. Therefore, it can save substantial land resources without weakening parking capacity.

Specifically, this building, with an overall floorage of more than 9,800 square meters, boasts 387 parking spaces. However, it only covers an area of about 680 square meters.

The garage is situated around the intersection of Xijiao Road and Xizi Road (Xijiao Branch Road) in Jiulongpo District. It also sits close to the People’s Government of Jiulongpo District, Chongqing Zoo and Jiulong Square.

With a height of 48.7 meters, this 22-story building becomes a new landmark around Chongqing Zoo. The entrances are set up on the first floor, and the 2nd to 19th floors serve as the parking lot. The 20th floor is for machine rooms, and the equipment rooms are on the 2 floors underground.

The external facade mainly adopts the design of glass, looking stylish and modern. Moreover, its landscape lighting will add something new to the night scene of Jiulongpo District.

Scanning the QR code for parking and pick-up, 30s service

The first floor includes four parking lots—A, B, C, and D. The former three are square, and the last one is round.

Types like commercial vehicles and SUVs are parked in the lower area, while the higher one is for cars.

There are a total of 14 entrances in this building. Each has a rolling gate, which will open automatically when the vehicles come to the entrance. The drivers can get out of the garage after driving to the designated parking space. Then they can scan the WeChat QR code near the entrance for parking.

The display screen above the entrance will show the real-time information of vehicles. This is convenient for drivers to know about the parking circumstance. After the completion of parking upstairs, the rolling gate will open again. And drivers will no longer see their vehicles on the first floor.

The pick-up process is also easy. Drivers can scan the QR code for parking, or use Alipay at the self-service payment machine near the entrance.

After the successful payment, the vehicle will “come downstairs” automatically and then back to the first-floor parking space. Drivers can drive out from the opening gate afterward.

There is no manual operation during the parking and pick-up processes, both of which can be completed within 90 seconds. Parking in lower floors, drivers can only spend about 30 seconds picking up their vehicles after payment.

Source: CQCB

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