Committee Overview and Responsibilities

2012

Final FTD Report

Parking
Farm Technology Days

Outagamie County

Parking Committee Report

****Please note that there are many other associated files included in the storage device that may be very helpful in your planning. Look in the “Additional Parking Committee Information” folder for files relating to Parking Staff Schedules, Calendar of duties, Timeline, Flying Farmers, etc.

COMMITTEE OVERVIEW AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The committee was responsible for parking both vendors and attendees in a manner that was safe, efficient, and welcoming. Our purpose was to move inbound traffic from the surrounding roads into the parking lots as quickly as could safely be done.

The Parking Committee’s onsite operation center was set up at the snowmobile club in Sugar Bush. Thanks to them for letting the Parking Committee take over the building and their site for over a week. The volunteer and break center was located in the club’s eastern room and the command center was a mobile office trailer donated by Keller Structures, located about 100 feet ESE of the snowmobile club building.

The location of the general parking lot field, as it related to all traffic constraints surrounding the event, allowed for two entry points from the east off of County HWY D and no other general traffic entrances. No more than two entries were possible based on research of effective driveway and road layouts in and around a large event venue parking lot. (County WW driveways were not to be used for general traffic flow because of the EMS Incident Action Plan that determined that County Road WW through the town of Sugar Bush would be a staging area should there be a need for resources related to an incident at the event site.)

The general parking lot was designed with two main lot roads running east-west and several roads running north-south. The north road (Dill Street) was for traffic coming from the north and the main entrance after County D was returned its usual 2-way traffic pattern. The south road (Egg Plant) was for traffic coming from the south in addition to being an exit road after County D returned to normal 2-way traffic, which is explained in more detail later in this section.

Buses from Kobussen Bus Company were utilized to transport attendees to and from the North, South, and East gates. Buses staged themselves at the end of the most recently filled row for pick up. Bus stops were spaced across the general lot so that when attendees returned to the parking lot they could be dropped off near their vehicle. Because of the close proximity to Tent City, vendors could utilize trams or courtesy carts to enter Tent City. Buses traveling to the North Gate and performer shuttles were the only bus traffic in the Vendor Lot.

Charter Buses with attendees were directed to the Grounds/Loading Dock area where they could drop off their passengers near the East Gate. Drivers were then directed to Wal-Mart in New London where they could park their buses on a hard-surface lot and then be shuttled to the event. Buses then staged in the Grounds area while their passengers loaded for departure.

The ‘Flying Farmers’ were shuttled to and from the Clintonville airport by bus. They were picked up and dropped off at regular intervals.

COMMITTEE STRUCTURE

Parking Committee consisted of:

Mike Cattelino Event Vice-Chair & Executive Committee liaison

Terry Linson Committee Co-Chair

James Thunes Committee Co-Chair

Brad Bastian Maps

Sgt. Mike Fitzpatrick Traffic

John Ross Site Communications

Laura Norton Scheduling

Jeff Chamberlin Volunteer Communications

BUDGET

Below is a table that shows the original budget that we had forecasted for the event. We added an addendum of $100,000 for driveways to be installed, but the costs of those were drastically reduced because the county highway department agreed to let us use the materials for no cost and only charge labor. For the three driveways installed specifically for parking this came out to about $6,000.

Fencing / $5,000.00
Food / $500.00
Misc. / $1,500.00
Printing / $500.00
Signs / $3,000.00
Supplies / $250.00
Volunteer Exp. / $0.00
Sub Total / $10,750.00

TIMELINE

Productive planning meetings were held monthly starting over a year in advance of the event, although committee organizational meetings had occurred up to two years prior to the event. Refer to related documentation on the remote storage device in the ‘Additional Parking Committee Information’ folder.

AT THE SHOW:

Site Layout

The Parking Committee’s onsite operation center was set up at the snowmobile club in Sugar Bush. The volunteer and break center was located in the club’s eastern room and the command center was a mobile office trailer donated by Keller Structures, located about 100 feet ESE of the snowmobile club building.

Buses from Kobussen Bus Company were utilized to transport attendees to and from the North, South, and East gates. Buses staged themselves at the end of the most recently filled row for pick up. Bus stops were spaced across the general lot so that when attendees returned to the parking lot they could be dropped off near their vehicle. Because of the close proximity to Tent City, vendors could utilize trams or courtesy carts to enter Tent City. Buses traveling to and the North Gate and performer shuttles were the only bus traffic in the Vendor Lot.

The ‘Flying Farmers’ were shuttled to and from the Clintonville airport by bus. They were picked up and dropped off at regular intervals.

Traffic Plan

The event opening traffic plan resulted in two lanes of one-way traffic north of Hoffman Road on County HWY D. Vehicles that came predominantly from the north were funneled onto Hoffman Road and then turned north onto HWY D and directed to stay in the right lane. Their entry was the north road (Dill Street) of the general parking lot. Traffic coming from the south up County HWY D was forced into the left lane as they approached Hoffman Road. Their entry was the south road (Egg Plant) of the general parking lot.

During the event opening the only exit from the general lot was to the west and then onto the railroad grade, eventually coming onto County WW at the Waupaca/Outagamie County line in the town of Sugar Bush. All traffic exiting was turned west on WW in order to connect onto US HWY 45.

At a time determined by free flowing traffic on County HWY D and communicated across traffic and parking radio networks, the County D traffic pattern would be switched back to a normal two-way flow. Dill Street then became the entry point into the general parking lot and Egg Plant Street became an exit for south-bound traffic. The railroad grade to WW route would remain as an exit for north-bound vehicles.

Vendors were sent specific traffic flow pattern descriptions in the event packet letter. To access the event, Vendors utilized HWY 45 until they reached County WW near Sugar Bush. They were directed east on WW until they reached the Vendor lot.

Lot Layout

The general parking lot was built for about 9,500 vehicles. The Vendor lot was designed for just over 1,000 vehicles with some space for trailer parking at the northwest corner.

The general parking lot’s rows were set by using GPS guided auto-steer windrowers that left 12-inches of uncut hay down the middle of each parking row. Special thanks to Case IH/Service Motor Co., and John Deere/Caroline Implement for allowing FTD to utilize the precision cutting technology. Reuben, Joe, and Travis did a very good job of coordinating their technology in order to make the lot row layout more efficient and less labor intensive. Brad and Traci at the Outagamie County GIS office were able to get the map/shape files to Joe and Reuben that then allowed the machines to follow the prescribed layout. It was a tremendous undertaking and a learning experience for everyone.

Although in one large field, besides the vendor lot, the general parking was sectioned into ten (10) lots.

Lot A - VIP/Media

Lot B - ADA/Handicap

Lot C - Motorcycle and General Parking in the northeast corner near County D, north of Dill Street. This lot turned out to be the lot of choice for many volunteers in the Field Demo area since it was the closest lot their HQ.

Lot D - West lot between Dill and Egg Plant Streets.

Lot E - Center lot, between Dill and Egg Plant Streets.

Lot F - Eastern most lot between Dill and Egg Plant Streets.

Lot G - West lot south of Egg Plant Street.

Lot H - One lot east of Lot G, south of Egg Plant Street.

Lot J - South of Egg Plant, south of Lot E.

Lot K - Eastern most lot, south of Egg Plant Street. Because of altitude/topography this would be the last lot filled.

Lot V - The Vendor parking lot was located north of County WW, at the far west end of ‘tent city’. Based on historical yet limited data from recent WFTDs it was determined that 1,000 parking stalls in the Vendor lot would be adequate. Trailers that wanted long-term parking were directed off-site to Ort Lumber in New London.

Parking Plan

The process of parking the cars which was implemented is what is called ‘speed parking’ (http://www.ite.org/annualmeeting/compendium10/pdf/AB10H3304.pdf). It is a process where the vehicles are funneled into the specific parking areas at an angle from the lot access road rather than being directed in a perpendicular fashion from the lot road down each parking row. This process was utilized in both the vendor and general parking areas.

In the general lot, it was planned to first fill Lot D with traffic from the north off of Dill Street and lot G with traffic from the south off of Egg Plant Street. Lots would be filled in a west-to-east pattern in accordance with trying to clear traffic from County D as efficiently as possible in an attempt to keep traffic on the local and surrounding highways flowing.

Contingencies

If conditions did not permit parking on the grounds, contingent hard-surface alternate parking for about 4,500-5,000 total vehicles was located at:

Fox Valley Technical College – Clintonville (North)

Clintonville Middle and High Schools (North)

New London Middle and High Schools (South and West)

Shiocton Schools (East)

Hortonville Middle and High School (South)

Crystal Falls Banquet Hall – New London (Executive Committee and Volunteers)

Buses assigned to on-site locations would be split up accordingly and dispersed to the alternate parking locations should that plan be necessary. They would drop off at the East and South gates in order to remain on hard-surface roads at all times. Parking volunteers would also be dispersed to the alternate locations to staff the lots. Signs denoting alternate parking would be erected should the forecast dictate.

Overflow parking areas were also prepared in the event that the attendance was higher than capacities would allow in the General and Vendor Lots. One overflow lot had capacity for about 3,500 vehicles, was located just east of County Road D on Hoffman Road, and would serve as the lot for traffic coming from the north. The NE New London Industrial Park was the overflow lot for traffic from the south. In either case, buses would be dispersed from the General Lot to these locations if necessary.

Training

Training for parking volunteers was held on Thursday July 12th and again in Saturday July 14th. Concepts on the overall plan, speed parking, and other topics were covered in the training. Those individuals needing the required training for utility vehicle and golf cart operations were trained on the respective equipment as they arrived for their shifts. More information is provided on this storage device in the “Additional Parking Committee Information” folder.

Set-up

The parking set-up on site started on Thursday July 5th. Volunteers met at the Sign Trailer in the Grounds Area to strategize and transfer materials. The Vendor Lot was the start of the set-up. With the help of Greg Banick from the OC Land Conservation office, a GPS locator was used to find the spots in the lot where the end of each row was located. Stakes and short lengths of ‘caution tape’ were used to mark the spots. Row signs were then placed on the Vendor Street ends of the rows. ADA stalls were marked with signs and the access roads from the Vendor Lot into Tent City at 4th and 7th streets were marked with wood stakes and caution tape. Bus turn-around and trailer parking areas were also marked with appropriate signage either procured from the Sign Trailer or ordered from the Sign Committee.