How to design underground car parks in very narrow and restricted city areas

1. UUNNDDEERRGGRROOUUNNDD CCAARR PPAARRKKSS IINN
RREESSTTRRIICCTTEEDD UURRBBAANN AARREEAASS
Claudio Angelino, M.Sc., D.I.C.
Geotechnical engineer
63angelino@gmail.com
+39 (0) 366 2172423

2. Claudio Angelino, M.Sc., D.I.C., geotechnical engineer
1
Overall presentation
Claudio Angelino is a geotechnical engineer with 24+ year of experience in
the design of geotechnical works for the construction and infrastructure
industry.
During his career Claudio Angelino has worked many times in the narrow
spaces of the centers of European cities, dealing with new and innovative
design procedures for underground car parks.
Our modern cities: few space, too many cars
In our modern culture there is always
less space in our cities: more people
and more cars means less and less
areas dedicated to our life and free
time. There are too many cars using
too much space on surface, often in
restricted areas, with narrow alleys
and roads, especially in the busy
congested downtown areas of our
major cities.
This situation, which is getting worse,
means that efforts must be done to pursue technical solutions capable of
returning to people more space on surface, to provide wider spaces and
more green areas in our cities.
In the last years Claudio Angelino and some of his clients have pushed some
of their design efforts towards finding technical solutions that allow to put
more cars underground, particularly in very restricted areas. This document is
about these solutions and the possibility of extending them to other similar
situations around the world.
The solution
Claudio Angelino has worked in the last
few years in many different projects
where civil and industrial engineering
have been joined together to find
solutions capable of eliminating cars
from our streets.

3. Claudio Angelino, M.Sc., D.I.C., geotechnical engineer
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The different technical capacities of Claudio Angelino have been
implemented to achieve outstanding results in very restricted areas by storing
tens of cars in very small areas (down to 15 x 15 m2
).
The preliminary study: geology and geotechnics
A detailed site investigation is carried out, with ground borings, to investigate
the engineering properties of the soil involved in the construction, the
presence of the water table and the resistance of the material to be
excavated. These data are used to determine the technical and economical
feasibility of the construction, to ascertain the type of machinery to be used
for the excavation and its cost and the need of dealing with the water table
during the construction and the life of the structure (waterproofing).
The design: geotechnics
Once the design process has started the geotechnical expertise of our
engineers plays a vital role in determining the best technical and economical
solution to build the new underground park. The support structures have to
be designed, often by keeping account of the very narrow spaces available:
the solution is chosen in terms of
accessibility (available room to
operate) of the machinery to the
site and in terms of the
geomechanical parameters of the
ground. Existing structures are
representing major problems:
small alleys, overhanging
structures and balconies not
allowing the use of big
machineries, small entrances to
internal courts that have to be
excavated, problems of vibrations
in the vicinity of old masonry

4. Claudio Angelino, M.Sc., D.I.C., geotechnical engineer
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buildings, etc: everything has to be taken into account to find a viable
solution.
Different techniques can be used: top-down excavations, multi anchored
berlinese walls, traditional underpinning with reinforced concrete structures,
etc.. Every possible technical solution must be analyzed to optimize the costs
and the construction procedures. Where anchors cannot be used due to
restricted areas and problems with neighboring properties the definitive
concrete structures (slabs) are used to help the supporting phase during
excavations.
By working very adjacent to old buildings, often masonry, particular care must
be taken in the process of minimizing ground stress release to avoid
settlements in the old buildings: in many case a detailed topographical and
geotechnical monitoring is put in place during the construction to track the
deformations in the ground.
In many cases the water table represents a difficult problem: different
systems can be adopted from pumping (well points system or similar) to
waterproof barriers that do not physically allow the flow of the water table
within the excavation (jet grouting or similar).
The design: structures
Once the geotechnics of the problem
has been sorted out the structural
engineers are doing their part of the
design, by providing options that can
be easily coupled with the retaining
structures, often by choosing a solution
that minimizes the opening time of the
(un)supported excavations.
The mechanics and the electronics
Finally, once the structure has been built,
the park is completed with the elevators
that allow cars to be stored underground
without the use of a normal ramp, in
those cases where there is no space for it. Polithema does not design these
aspects but in these years has been deeply involved by its clients in the choice
of the final solutions where the mechanical machinery has to be conveniently
implemented according to the small available space.

5. Claudio Angelino, M.Sc., D.I.C., geotechnical engineer
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Works
Claudio Angelino has fully designed and supervised, through the years, many
underground car parks in very restricted areas in our narrow historical city
centres. Just to mention few of them:
 Sai Fondiaria insurance company: underground car
park in downtown Turin, Italy, 42 places, no ramp,
mechanized storage system, 13 m below ground level,
berlinese wall with minipiles and without anchors,
traditional underpinning, top down excavation.
Geotechnical / structural design and works supervision
 Sai Fondiaria Insurance Company, refurbishment of the
former Lux Cinema in downtown Turin, 30+ places with
ramps, 16 m below ground level inside one of the most
important historical building in the city. Berlinese walls
with minipiles, anchors, soil nailing, fully excavated.
Geotechnical / structural design and works supervision
 Bank of Alba, underground car park in the city of Alba,
15 places without ramp, very narrow area available of
about 15 x 15 m2
, adjacent to an old masonry tower 25
m high. Berlinese walls, anchors, top down excavation,
jet grouting to control the water table. Geotechnical /
structural design and works supervision
 Private client, underground car park downtown Turin,
mechanized without ramp, 25 places, berlinese wall with minipiles, no
anchors, top down excavation. Geotechnical / structural design and works
supervision
 City of Moncalieri, multi-storey car park in the historical center, traditional
ramp, 470+ places, multianchored berlinese walls 25 m high. Geotechnical
design