ec29
Structural
- Jan 23, 2014
- 9
I am checking the capacity of an existing parking garage, originally designed for passenger cars (live load of 50 psf was used) to use it for parking vans and light trucks. The vans are around 9,000 lbs and are parked on one floor. The trucks are 19,000 lbs and are parked on a different floor. The garage is owned by a private firm and is not open to the public. I have the axle loads for both vehicles. What load should I check for? Is it acceptable and sufficient to place the wheel loads in the most critical location for each member and check for that? It seems to make sense but the IBC Code only addresses truck garages saying that you must use the big HS20 AASHTO loads. Besides if I used wheels loads for a passenger car garage I would not be even close to the 50 psf required by the code.