Free surface parking at the Rail Runner stations tells you how this metro has handled cars so far: the Los Ranchos and Journal Center station was expanded from 140 to 270 spaces, and Belen's southern terminus has 220. Lots like those work because land is cheap and the stations sit at the edge of the built-up area. Where land is dear, as around the Sunport or on a dense mixed-use block, the answer is a structure.
The Sunport reported 5,274,764 passengers in 2025 through a single 25-gate terminal of about 574,000 square feet, and the city's Destination Sunport business park uses about 75 acres northeast of that terminal, with development that began December 14, 2018 in three phases expected to take about five years. Where people arrive in numbers and development gathers around a terminal, structured parking becomes part of the program. We build precast and cast-in-place garages, stand-alone and attached to office, hotel, medical and apartment buildings.
A garage is a long-span concrete project with very little tolerance for sloppy drainage. Our site concrete and ADA compliance work provides the accessible routes into the structure and the slab details that decide how it ages.
Most development in the metro is on land where surface parking is affordable, and a garage has to earn its place. It earns it where land is scarce or where height saves a footprint: near the airport terminal, on a campus where a hospital or office tower covers the available ground, or on an infill block where residential units occupy the surface. Our hotel and hospital pages describe two of the buildings that most often pull a garage into the project.
The Big-I, where I-25 and I-40 cross, and the Sunport interchanges on I-25 (exits 220, 221 and 222) carry the traffic that justifies parking near the airport and the south-east quadrant. Our Sunport area page covers that submarket, and the same logic applies to a campus beside a transit station.
The choice between a precast frame and a cast-in-place post-tensioned frame is the biggest decision in a garage. Precast is fast to erect and has a factory finish, but it requires crane access, a staging yard and careful connection details at the joints. Cast-in-place post-tensioned slabs are flexible in plan and can handle odd site shapes, but they take longer and depend on a concrete and finishing crew with experience in tendons. We price both for a given site and tell the owner honestly which has the better case.
Either way, the structure is heavy, and it starts with the foundations. Spread footings work on firm soils, and where the geotechnical report calls for them, our deep foundations and piers experience applies. The Albuquerque Basin is part of the Rio Grande rift, bordered by faults, so seismic criteria are part of the structural design from the beginning.
An open parking structure is exposed to everything. Daily temperature swings in the high desert are large, with elevations that range from about 4,900 feet by the river to more than 6,700 feet in the foothills, and a long concrete deck expands and contracts every day. Expansion joints, bearing pads and sealants are chosen for that movement, and we inspect them as work progresses, not just at the end.
Water is the enemy of a garage. Decks are sloped to drains and the drains are sized for the heaviest storm, not the average one. Snow, ice and de-icing chemicals reach the structure in winter, and a traffic-bearing membrane or sealer slows chloride penetration into the reinforcing. Wind adds uplift and drives rain through open sides, so stair towers, elevator enclosures and screening panels are designed for it. We tie the structure's drains into the site system, which we design with stormwater detention and drainage in mind.
The state adopts the 2021 International Building Code (14.7.2 NMAC), effective July 14, 2023, and parking garages are classified by whether they are open or enclosed. An open garage with enough permanent openings can avoid mechanical ventilation and, depending on height and area, certain sprinkler requirements, while an enclosed one needs ventilation, carbon monoxide detection and usually sprinklers. The decision is made with the design team and the fire official early, since it determines how the sides of the structure look.
Electrical work follows the 2020 National Electrical Code, and the 2021 energy code governs lighting. Charging stations for electric vehicles need conduit and capacity at the outset, and the cheapest time to install a feeder is before the slab is poured. Our utilities and power experience helps us talk with the utility about service size early.
A garage is priced per space, and the number depends on the structural system, the number of levels, the site and the finishes. Efficient bays, repeat floors and a simple ramp scheme reduce the cost; split levels, curved ramps and ornamental screens raise it. Foundation conditions and the cost of staging a crane in a tight site can also change the price by more than the difference between precast and cast-in-place.
We help the owner compare a garage against a surface-parked alternative on the whole project, not on the garage alone. A multifamily project may be viable only with a podium garage, while an office building near a transit station may be able to use less parking. We build the numbers for both and let the owner choose.
Tell us the number of spaces, the site footprint and the primary use. We will compare precast and cast-in-place options and show how drainage, joints and utilities are handled in each.
It depends on the site and the schedule. Precast is fast and has a factory finish but needs crane access and a staging yard. Cast-in-place post-tensioned work suits irregular sites. We price both for your site.
We design expansion joints and bearing details for the large daily and seasonal temperature swings of the high desert, and we inspect them during construction, since a failed joint leaks and stains the levels below.
If it has enough permanent openings, the building code allows an open garage to avoid mechanical ventilation. The decision is made early with the design team and the fire official, because it affects the exterior design.
Yes. Conduit and spare capacity are cheap before the slab is poured and expensive after. We coordinate with the utility early and leave capacity for a share of the stalls.
The Sunport handles over five million passengers a year and the city is developing a business park on about 75 acres northeast of the terminal, so structured parking can free land for other uses. The cost has to be weighed against surface lot alternatives.
Tell us about the property, the building and the schedule.
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