KJIPUKTUK (Halifax)  With no explanation, Department of Transportation’s 889 page RFP for the

Summer Street parking garage has a nasty one-sentence surprise buried deep inside the Sustainability Requirements section that specifically eliminates superior-to-conventional-ramp-parking alternative solutions. 

“Automated parking facilities and systems capable of receiving, parking, and retrieving passenger vehicles automatically are not considered viable for this project application.”page 139, Sustainability Requirements, Section 01 35 63 Page 3, OTHER GREEN INITIATIVES paragraph 1.3.2

And yet an automated robotic valet parking system would be the most sustainable choice.  For example:

1. Halifax Infirmary Site Location: the garage would be ~40% smaller with the same number of stalls and would fit on the surface parking lot on Robie Street next to the Veterans Memorial building, a shorter distance to the hospital entrance.
2. Green space:  There would be no loss of public open space on the Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History where the 8-storey conventional parkade is slated to be constructed. Approximately 2,900 citizens petitioned municipal and provincial governments to not allow expansion of any component of the Halifax Infirmary re-development outside of the 22 acres it has assembled.
3. Pedway: There would be no need for a pedway over Summer Street between a conventional parkade and the hospital entrance.
4. Health and Safety Impacts: Exposure of users breathing the toxic mix of car exhaust gases and brake and tire dust would go from well over 100,000 hours a year, to ZERO. Greenhouse gas emissions by users driving within the conventional parking garage would go from ~38 tonnes of CO₂ per year to essentially ZERO. Less interaction with other users means better social distancing. Provision of Accessible parking spaces would increase from 15 of 512 stalls to 100% Accessible. Robotic valet parkades eliminate potential criminal assaults (including rape), vandalism, thefts from their cars, as only maintenance staff can ever enter the parkade itself.
5. Construction and Operational Cost: In many cases an automated robotic valet parking system is less expensive and quicker to build and is almost certainly less expensive to operate than a conventional ramp parkade of the same capacity. 

Early in the process the Nova Scotia Lands Hospital Design team was made aware of and researched automated robotic valet parking systems and presented options based on the concepts to the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal (DTIR).

Who edited and released the RFP that outlaws the automated parking design paradigm?

Who benefits from eliminating the most sustainable option and cost effective choice from the bidding process?

What is the justification for not considering the most modern parking technologies for a building that is supposed to be the first part of a “State of the Art” $2,000,000,000 QEII Next Generation Project.

Will there also be a second-best choice for a conventional 1000 stall parking garage to be constructed on the former CBC TV lands?

Approximately 25% of the Halifax Common’s 240 acres is used for parking. The positive effects of green space on all aspects of health and the push by the city to densify population on the Peninsula mean remaining green and open Common land must be protected against more parking and further development. No traffic study has been conducted and no alternatives to the parking garages have been considered.

To date Nova Scotia Government has failed on its commitment to make public its fraud risk

report for the $2 billion P3 QEII redevelopment plan, the largest infrastructure project in the province’s history. A CCPA-NS report on the re-development raised concerns about transparency and accountability in the P3 decision making process and found that the private financing is 125% more than comparable public borrowing.

The Terms of Reference for the parkade RFP included the following;

Deliver a project centered onpeople and health, with healthcare rated

indoorenvironmental qualities. The parkade sustainable goals include:

1. Managing parking requirements efficiently 

      2. Increase energy efficiency and performance 

      3. Reduce environmental Impact 

4. Encourage alternative mobility options

2. The consultant is expected to make design recommendations based upon the design’s ability to support and enhance:

1. program delivery and operational approaches 
2. aesthetic considerations 
3. functional relationships 
4. code requirements 
5. green/sustainability 
6. healthy building considerations 
7. energy conservation 
8. SmartTrip Program / Halifax EPass 
9. Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) features.