Outdoor stairs from parking area

Question

Outdoor stairs from parking area

parkengr (Civil/Environmental)

(OP)

22 Feb 01 19:22

I am designing a parking lot expansion at the Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas, Nevada. There is already a visitor center with a small lot existing, but it is located on a ridge. The new lot will be at the bottom of the ridge and I must include abount 60 feet of stairs to provide access from this lower lot to the visitor center.
The existing ground consists of a reddish rock of which I am to disturb as little as possible. The existing slope of the area where the stairs are to go is fairly level for about 10 feet then it steepens to 22% for 30 feet and 43% for 10 feet with the remaining 10 feet being fairly level again. I would like suggestions on types of materials and stair types to use. I would like them to blend in with the environment if possible with maintaining a solid, fairly economical design

Qshake (Structural) · Answer 1 · 2001-03-07 10:01:25

What about treated lumber steps? Would this work with your constraints? The lumber, I think, would blend in well with the red rock.

The wooden stairs could be founded on small concrete pesdestals which sit on the rock. The rock would have to be chipped level at those locations but that is better than drilling into the rock.

pirsquared (Civil/Environmental) · Answer 2 · 2001-03-12 20:00:00

I couldnt help but offer my advice, I am from the Northeast and this is a common occurence. You can build these stairs out of segmented concrete units. I strongly reccomend using KEYSTONE RETAINING WALL BLOCKS. They have a web page and will guide you through the procedure as well as provide you with design software for you to download for free. One piece of advice. They have great designs for stairs and handrails as well. Do yourself a favor and educate yourself about this industry. It is very popular in this part of the country in reclaiming earth. Good Luck.

georam (Geotechnical) · Answer 3 · 2001-03-12 22:37:24

Is there a requirement to have a wheel chair access in Nevada ? If that would be the case, you must also provide an access using elevator. Low-slope walkaways (to allow the use of wheel chairs) would be difficult to construct, especially since it needs a lot of space, and you said that it will be about 60 feet high. Why not just a concrete stairs and an elevator enclosed in glass columns adjacent to the stairs ?

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Outdoor stairs from parking area