Tribune Chronicle Covers Tempark
February 07, 2011 at 6:45 PM
Tribune Chronicle
By Larry Ringler Weathersfield
A local paving company is hoping its new temporary parking lot material will make a permanent impression on its industry. American Parking Solutions LLC., a division Polivka Intl. Ltd., on Monday unveiled what it called the world’s first large-scale temporary parking lot material that can be rolled out like carpet to provide a stable surface for cars and light trucks.
Company President Basil Polivka said the TemPark material – two layers of tough material called geotextile fabric that is heat-fused with an inner core of plastic mesh – costs one-fifty as much as blacktop paving. The typical parking lot costs $150,000 to $225,000 an acre, he said. TemPark costs between $30,000 and $40,000 per acre. T
he material also eases environmental concerns, because it allows rainwater to seep into the ground, Polivka said. Railroads and automakers use temporary parking for products they’re transferring to and from trucks or storing for distribution, he said.
The company is targeting carmakers and railroad companies, as customers, Polivka said. Special events like the LPGA Giant Eagle Classic could use the material for parking cars on grass that could become mud in a rainstorm, he said. The fabric is tough enough to resist tears and punctures.
Currently, temporary parking lots are made of wood chips, gravel or shredded rubber tires, Polivka said. An acre of TemPark fabric can be installed in four hours, he said. The rolls come in 250-foot lengths and are seven feet wide. The material is fixed to the ground with pegs. The fabric can be made thicker to handle wetter ground, he said. The material can be painted with parking lot stripes or arrows, he said.
It lasts about two years of steady use, something the company is working to increase, he said. TemPark’s geotextile layers already are used under blacktop paving to provide a stable sub-surface, he said. The unique aspect of TemPark is the heat-fusion with the center core of tough plastic mesh to provide a surface strong enough to be used by itself, he said. The North Main Street business spent two years developing the material, then unveiled it at an industry show in Dallas in September.
Sold through its American Parking Solutions, Inc. division, the Weathersfield company can make about three acres of the material a day at its 35-worker plant in Atlanta, Polivka said. Production started a week ago, and the company projects making 150 acres of the fabric in the first year, Polivka said.