Here are some of the plans the Harris County commissioners looked over this week as they reviewed the engineering study for the proposal to raise the Astrodome’s below-grade floor and stick a parking garage beneath it. The view above shows an entrance ramp for cars from the east, with a service ramp running up from the southwest; NRG Stadium is shown peeking in on the scene from the left.
Got questions about the plan, or about anything else Dome-related? Someone claiming to be involved with the project is now taking inquiries from all comers over on Reddit. The thread started up yesterday and was still active this morning; topics addressed so far have included how the latest proposal would be funded, the feasibility of that spiral-ey skeletonized park idea, and the surprising number of people who have suggested turning the Dome into an indoor skiing venue.
The poster says they’ll try to keep checking back to answer new questions. While you wait, have a look at more views of the proposed changes to the structure — here’s what the ground-level park on Level 3 might look like, with pedestrian entrances on all 4 sides:
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 Regular vehicles would be directed by a ramp first to the Level 2 lot, marked up for 700 spaces:
A whole-Dome cross-section shows that ramp silhouetted on the left below:
Level 1 would get a direct service entrance ramp coming from the 7-o’-clock position:
That ramp is shown below in cross-section, with some of the Dome’s interior structures hovering in place for scale:
- Ask Me Anything: Astrodome [Reddit]
- Previously on Swamplot:County Wants To Fill In the Astrodome’s Flood Levels with Parking; Judge Emmett Has At Least 6 Things to Say about the Astrodome; Astrodome coverage
Images: Harris County Engineering Department
A single entrance/exit for the whole thing? Thats similar to the underground galleria parking. Except reduced to a single chokepoint with the entirety of it filling up and emptying at the same time. I’ll stick to Metrorail.
Expensive parking garage.
Thanks to Judge Emmett for fixing all of Harris County’s flooding issues! Since we have 100M to spend on parking, I assume all drainage issues have been resolved! Good job county commissioners!!
This would be the only covered parking at the NRG complex, it looks like. As such, I expect it would be über expensive to park there, and perhaps the project would pay for itself eventually.
Just wondering about the amount of exhaust and emission fumes they’ll need to blow out of this assuredly VIP parking location without allowing it to makes its way into the Dome’s upper levels.