CrossIron Mills is the largest shopping complex in Calgary—a city with a lot of big shopping malls. Large malls need a lot of parking space, and CrossIron Mills has a whopping 6400 parking spaces.
Parking lots are an essential feature of large shopping complexes—they need to be spread out enough that clients can access any of the anchor stores or entrances to the mall and clearly marked to improve the flow of traffic. We were thrilled to be asked to repaint the parking lot for CrossIron Mills. In this article, we’ll break down that process and share our results:
Project Details
Scope
This was an absolutely massive project, which involved:
- Repainting 6400 parking spaces
- Painting over 7000 lines, stop bars, cross-hatching, arrows, and more
- Painting specialized markings like those used on parking spaces for persons with disabilities
- Painting surface markings for lanes and other features to control traffic flow
Objectives
Our objectives for this project were clear: Enhancing the customer experience at CrossIron Mills by repainting the parking lot. More specifically, we wanted to:
- Ensure that all parking lot markings were clearly visible in all conditions, year-round
- Paint the parking lot quickly and efficiently to avoid downtime
- Ensure that all markings were spaced perfectly to make parking easy
- Improve the flow of traffic through easily identifiable markings
- Lower CrossIron Mills costs by using highly durable paint with a long lifespan
Challenges
There are always significant challenges when painting a parking lot of this size. These challenges include:
- Heavy traffic during most hours of the day, which limits our ability to paint
- A large surface area to be painted—careful resource allocation was needed
- Over 7000 lines to be painted—any mistakes in spacing could result in cascading errors and the need to repaint dozens of lines
- A variety of symbols and specialized markings were needed—mistakes could lead to confusion, accidents, and other serious problems
Strategies Employed
To accomplish our goals and tackle the various challenges that present themselves with a parking lot painting project of this scope, we employed several tactics and strategies, including:
- Working off-peak hours, including working late into the night, to limit disruptions
- Deploying several trucks and staff members with line painting machines at strategic points around the parking lot to cover as much ground as possible as quickly as possible
- Carefully planning out all of the work well in advance of when painting began to ensure accuracy
- Using our highly skilled team members to paint the most intricate markings
- Equipping our members with lights, high-visibility vests, and other equipment to ensure their safety, even when they worked at night
Outcomes
Our team successfully fully repainted the CrossIron Mills parking lot; we even have a video to showcase the incredible functional and aesthetic changes we accomplished. This project was completed on time and on budget—we’re quite happy with our work, and so is our client.
Getting Started With Parking Lot Line Painting
Here at Infinity, we’re proud of our ability to tackle projects of any size. As paving contractors in Calgary, we offer parking lot line painting, asphalt repair, snow removal, parking lot snow plowing and more—a full-service provider for all your parking lot maintenance needs.
Parking lot line painting is one of our specialties, and if you’re impressed with the work we’ve done for CrossIron Mills, just imagine what we can do for your business. Give us a call today; you’ll be glad you did!
Brent Schuldhaus is the founder and president of Infinity Asphalt. He grew up in Calgary, Alberta, played junior hockey for three years, graduated from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Ontario with a Bachelor of Commerce and went on to found Infinity Asphalt in 2019.
