Nine thousand seven hundred people can leave an arena at once, and every one of them has a car. The Casper Events Center seats up to 9,700 for concerts, and its access road comes off the I-25 interchange with US 20/26 at exit 189. A concert night is the one time the city asks a parking structure to prove itself.
Structured parking is rare in a metro this size, because surface land is cheap. When a deck gets built it is for a reason: a hospital with a tight campus, a downtown block with no room, a plant that needs shift parking inside a secure fence. We build the deck as a concrete structure first and a traffic machine second. Slabs, columns, post-tensioning, drains, joints and coatings all have to survive salt, snow and thaw.
A deck lasts if the concrete stays dry. Everything we do is built around that. Cracked joints, ponded water and rusted rebar are what owners find in year ten on a deck that was built to a price and not to a drainage plan.
Structure, slabs and the drainage that keeps them alive
Most decks here are cast-in-place or precast concrete frames with post-tensioned or pretensioned floors. Our trade partners place foundations, columns, walls and slabs, and we coordinate the erection of precast pieces with the supplier. The ramps, stair and elevator cores, guard walls and lighting round out the building. Guard walls and barrier cables are designed for vehicle impact, and we verify embeds and connections before the pour, since a missed plate cannot be added later without coring the slab.
Drainage decides how long the deck lasts. Slabs slope to drains, joints are sealed, and waterproofing sits over the structural concrete. Winter salt carried in by cars breaks down unprotected steel. We specify sealers and traffic coatings, set drains where the plow cannot bury them and check slopes before the pour. See our industrial concrete floors method for how we handle flatness and finishing.
Design criteria and who reviews it
The state adopted the 2024 International Codes on June 28, 2024, and the City of Casper lists the same family, amended under Title 15 of its Municipal Code. City criteria call out climate zone 6B, seismic design category B, a three foot frost line to top of footing, a 3,000 air freezing index and severe weathering. The air freezing index and severe weathering matter for concrete mixes: the structure needs air entrainment and the right cover.
Plan review in Casper covers structural calculations, engineering reports and specifications, and commercial permits often include a life-safety plan and Planning/Zoning approval. Permits are good for 180 days. Open parking structures are treated differently from enclosed ones in the fire code, so the first design decision is how open the sides are.
Where a deck makes sense
Three places stand out. The hospital campus, where Wyoming Medical Center operates 249 beds in a Level II trauma center and visitors, staff and ambulances compete for limited ground. Downtown, along I-25 Business, where the Old Yellowstone District is an urban renewal area with a form-based code and little surface land to spare. And event venues, where peak demand is brief and heavy.
An industrial owner might build a deck on a fenced campus to separate employee vehicles from heavy truck traffic. That is a safety decision more than a land decision. We look at the yard plan, the shift change flow and the gate before sketching levels. A permit to work covers the crane, the pump truck and the hot work, and nobody drives onto the pad without a safety orientation. Compare with hospital campus construction for the way a deck fits into a bigger site.
Events, queues and exits
A deck is judged at the exit. The lanes out should let cars empty to the street without backing up onto the interchange. At the Events Center the exit 189 interchange is the pressure point, and any deck nearby should be modeled for the event load, not the daily load. Gate arms, payment and signage are slower than people expect. A deck under a mixed-use building adds another layer, since residents, shoppers and delivery trucks all share the same ramps and the fire separation between uses has to hold.
We work with the traffic engineer early. Entry and exit lanes, turning radii, stairs and elevators are located so that the deck empties evenly. Lighting, cameras and emergency phones are tied into the building's power and data. A related option is an at-grade lot built by the stabilized parking lot trade crews, which costs far less per space but takes more land.
Pour windows and winter
Deck work is a stack of pours. Each level needs formwork, reinforcing, post-tensioning, inspection and a concrete delivery window. In cold weather we use heated enclosures, insulated forms and blankets, and we protect the slab from freezing for the full curing period. Post-tensioning is stressed only after the concrete has reached its design strength, and the cylinders tell us when.
Precast shortens the on-site time but needs a crane and good access, and the pieces ship from outside the metro. We lock the delivery dates early through long-lead procurement management and plan crane pads and laydown with the site team. For structural steel decks the steel arrives on a different path; see our structural steel erection page.
Weighing a deck against a lot?
Give us the site plan and the peak count. We will price both and show you where the deck pays back. Plants that need secure shift parking can start with our advanced manufacturing page.
Common Questions
Is a parking structure worth it compared with a surface lot?
Only when land is tight or expensive, or when a safety goal calls for it. A surface lot costs far less per space. A deck pays off on a constrained campus, downtown or where heavy truck traffic must be separated from cars.
What makes parking decks fail early?
Water and salt. Cracked joints, poor drainage and unprotected steel allow chlorides into the concrete. Good slopes, sealed joints, traffic coatings and routine maintenance matter more than any single material choice. We hand the owner a maintenance plan with joint and drain inspection dates at turnover.
How long does a deck take to build?
A modest two- or three-level deck can be built in several months of good weather. The winter pause is the biggest variable, along with precast supply and inspections.
Will a deck need elevators and stairs?
Yes. Code sets the number and placement of stairs and accessible routes, and owners usually want at least one elevator. Those cores are often the first things we build, since they brace the structure.
Can we build a deck on an operating site?
Yes, with limits. We separate the construction zone with fencing, schedule deliveries away from shift changes and keep crane lift paths off active roads.