215: I-10 Rest Area Truck Parking Expansion Okaloosa County

The semi-truck parking lot at the I-10 rest stop in Okaloosa County, Florida had an ongoing capacity issue. There were not enough parking spaces to accommodate the number of trucks entering the stop. As a result, truck drivers had been parking on the road shoulder and other less than ideal areas. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) secured the funding to expand the parking lot. Our team was tasked with designing a new parking lot while mainly focused on maximizing stalls per acre. In addition, installation of an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) capable of displaying the number of available spaces in the lot. 

Challenges associated with this project included a mandate that we work within the current right of way. We also had to make sure that our design interfaced with the existing structures on the property. We did not want to modify the passenger car parking lot or bathroom facilities. To implement the redesign, we increased impervious area and were forced to move an existing tree line. We reshaped the storm water ponds on the property to handle all runoff. To add many spaces without increasing the footprint too much, we opted to utilize back-in spaces. This differed our design from the existing layout which utilized pull through spaces only. Our completed design offered 84 total spaces, with four being handicap accessible. The original parking lot only had 50 total spaces, two being handicap accessible. Our redesign accounted for a 68% increase in usable parking spaces. The enlarged capacity of the new parking lot provided more truck drivers with a safe, secure and free place to stop and rest.