Meeting the Parking and Air Transportation Requirements for a Healthcare Facility

Oneida County, New York is dedicated to delivering exceptional healthcare services to its residents. The 530,000-square-foot Oneida County Parking Garage, which opened in the summer of 2024, is adjacent to the Mohawk Valley Health System’s newly constructed Wynn Hospital and symbolizes the county’s commitment to revitalizing the local healthcare system’s infrastructure. 

The garage has a total of 1,330 parking spaces on five levels and was designed to provide employees, visitors, and patients with access to the hospital from the ground floor of the garage through a covered, climate-controlled, and conditioned pedestrian walkway. Of the 1,330 spaces, a total of 1,066 spots are designated for hospital use and 264 for public use. Additionally, there are a total of 45 accessible spaces and 69 electric vehicle (EV) charging spaces.

The ground floor of the garage and half of the second floor offer public parking for visitors to the hospital as well as for other destinations in downtown Utica, including the multipurpose Adirondack Bank Center Arena. There are also 70 designated spaces on the ground floor reserved for visitors to the emergency room, which has its own designated entry and exit portal closer to the emergency room entrance. The remainder of the second floor, as well as the third through fifth floors, is designated for hospital staff parking. 

One challenge was separating the garage’s user groups to meet the multiple ownership groups’ interests in the facility. Because Oneida County funded the garage, it required 20% of the spaces to be reserved for public parking. Segregating these users was achieved using multiple ramping systems, a secondary speed ramp, and well-signed portals.

Another challenge involved locating the heliport above the fifth-floor parking area of the garage to meet the hospital’s emergency air transportation needs. The design team positioned the helipad close to the emergency room, ensuring safe air access for helicopters. This meant configuring the height and locations of the light poles to work with takeoff directions. 

Because of the addition of the heliport above the top level of parking, it required additional elevators large enough to accommodate stretchers; a heated slab for snow removal, which necessitated the addition of a heated slab using boilers; special drainage off the heliport due to the need for fuel-water separators as well as supplemental lighting and a wind cone for visibility. 

The carefully structured placement of the helipad above the top deck minimized any impact on the garage’s vehicle count. 

The garage was designed as a cast-in-place post-tensioned concrete structure with precast concrete panels on the exterior and includes a customized lighting system that can be programmed to coordinate with special events in downtown Utica. 

Since its opening, the Oneida County Parking Garage has concurrently met the parking and air transportation requirements for the healthcare facility, while also serving as a vital addition to the public parking needs in the area.