Officials with Reagan National Airport (DCA) said Wednesday that relief is soon on the way ‘to help with a longtime parking shortage, and that relief is coming by way of a new parking garage being built in a unique way.`

`Construction crews are building a new parking deck on top of a section of the airport’s economy lot. A portion of the deck is expected to open in February, providing 939 parking spaces. In May, the rest of the new parking deck is scheduled to open, providing an additional 1,230 parking spaces.’

Especially following the pandemic, DCA has faced a shortage of parking, particularly during spring break and holiday weekends. At times in recent years, every space in the garages and the economy lot has been taken.

'First-of-its-kind' parking structure coming to Reagan National Airport

In order to build the new parking deck, the airport had to temporarily make the parking crunch worse by taking away about a thousand spaces from the economy lot. To minimize the pain from the loss of spaces, Reagan National officials say they have chosen a construction method that is helping them build the parking deck faster and with fewer complications than traditional construction.

“As the truck pulls up to the site, in a perfect world, it’s immediately offloaded, the precast concrete panel is set in place as a floor, and then it leaves, and another truck comes in, and another precast panel is put in place,” said Drew Hascall with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority’s Dept. of Engineering at an MWAA meeting Wednesday.

Hascall said the process is “a first-of-its-kind construction in the U.S.”

Although the construction process is faster, a DCA spokesperson said that safety is not being compromised, saying the parking deck will be a “very sound and safe structure” that “won’t look like it’s temporary.”

The structure is technically called a “relocatable parking deck,” although airport officials say they don’t actually have any plans to relocate it after it opens.

The parking deck will include a mix of parking for both travelers and airport employees.

The airport’s website said there are currently a total of just over 7,500 parking spaces available for travelers. The new parking deck will improve that, although it’s unclear just how many new spaces there will be for travelers. That’s because airport officials haven’t yet decided how many new spots will go for travelers and how many new spots will go for employees.

An airport spokesperson said the new garage will help enable future construction projects at the airport that will require the temporary loss of other parking spaces. One major plan for the future, still in its relatively early stages, is the redevelopment of Terminal 1, the original part of DCA.

An airport spokesperson said that although the terminal will be redeveloped, the historic facade on the outside is expected to remain unchanged.

Modular construction is having its time! Very cool approach to the construction of a new parking lot. Curious to know how much this project cost.