New Asphalt Parking LotOrlando, Florida
A new parking lot built at an Orlando shopping complex that never closed its doors. Graded, compacted and paved in sections so customers always had somewhere to park and tenants always had a delivery route.
Project at a glance
- Location
- Orlando, Orange County
- Scope
- New asphalt parking lot
- Site
- Shopping complex, open for business
- Sequence
- Graded and paved in sections
The Constraint
How do you build a parking lot at a plaza that cannot close?
You build it in sections, and you plan the customer route before you plan the paving. The lot is the last thing anyone thinks about until it is the only thing between a shopper and the front door.
The background of this photo tells the story. Storefronts open, cars in the far bays, a roll-off and a portable toilet parked out of everyone’s way. The working area was fenced off from the part of the lot still in use, and spoil went straight from the loader bucket into a tri-axle rather than sitting in a pile where customers needed to drive. On a live retail site that is the difference between a contained job and a mess that spreads across the property for a week.
Phasing decides everything else, including how long the job takes and what it costs. A lot you can close for four days is a cheaper lot than one built in three stages around trading hours. Our commercial asphalt page covers how we stage work for properties that stay open, and the asphalt paving in Orlando page covers Orange County sites specifically.
Below The Surface
Why does so much of a parking lot job happen before any asphalt arrives?
Because the base decides how long the lot lasts. The black layer on top is the part people see and the least interesting part of the job.
A parking lot has a drainage problem a road does not. A road is narrow, crowned, and everything on it is moving. A lot is wide, nearly flat, and full of parked cars sitting still on top of whatever water cannot get away. Put a low spot in a stall and it holds a puddle for the life of the lot. In Orlando you find out within a week, because the afternoon storms that roll through most of the summer test every square foot of your grading for free. That is why so much of this job looks like dirt. The crew stripped the organics, cut the site to grade with the Kubota SVL track loader, shaped the fall toward the inlets, and compacted it before a single load of hot mix was ordered.
The last frame in the stages below is the honest version of a Florida build. Sky gone gray, water standing along the seam where the new asphalt meets the older lot, and a crew member running a plate compactor at the tie-in anyway. Tie-ins are where lots usually fail, because you are joining new work to a surface that has already settled however it wants to. The base preparation behind all of it is covered on our sitework and site preparation page.
On Site
What do the stages actually look like?
Three frames from the build, in order: the site cut to grade, spoil going out, and the first asphalt down against the older lot. Nothing in the first two is asphalt work, and that is the point.
For Property Managers
What should you budget for once the lot is paved?
Striping first, then a sealcoat cycle a few years out. A new lot is not finished the day the paving crew leaves.
Fresh asphalt needs time before anything goes on top of it. Layout comes first, because the striping plan decides how many cars your property actually holds and whether your accessible stalls and access aisles are right. Getting that wrong is an expensive correction once the paint is down and a genuine liability if the accessible parking does not comply. Curb stops and bollards go in around the same stage, like the yellow bollard beside the storefront in this photo.
After that the lot mostly needs you to keep water out of it. Sealing on a sensible cycle with asphalt sealcoating protects the binder from UV and from the fuel and oil that collect where cars sit. When cracks appear, and they will, handling them early with crack filling and repairs stops water reaching the base you just paid to build. A lot that gets this attention can hold ten to fifteen years of Florida sun. One that gets none of it will not.
Want to see another commercial job?
The DeLand curb project shows the concrete side of this work, where forms and a poured curb had to go in around a live retail lot on a busy highway frontage.
Need a parking lot built without closing your property?
Call and walk us through how your site runs: where deliveries come in, which entrance customers use, which tenants cannot lose their frontage. We build the phasing around that and give you a straight price. Most estimates go out same day or next day.
Call us today (386) 215-7466