Time Equipment Company modernized the parking system for Des Moines Marina and Des Moines Beach Park.
Located at 22030 Cliff Ave S. in Des Moines, the Des Moines Marina opened in 1970 to provide low-cost recreational opportunities for residents and regional tourists. In 1980, the Fishing Pier and Artificial Reef project designed by Philippe Cousteau, the son of legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, was added.
The Marina property contains five parking lots: North Lot – 178 spaces, Central Lot – 59 spaces, Office Lot – 7 spaces, Dry Shed – 24 spaces, and Main Lot – 307 single and 22 vehicle-trailer spaces. In addition, the Des Moines Beach Park and Event Center has 58 spaces.
Because of the public use of the Marina, it was essential to have a reliable system to increase off-water revenue. During the bidding process, the City Council stated that the ability to service the parking system locally and keep the system running was more important than the system cost. As part of the selection process, the City of Des Moines sent several Marina service and IT employees to tour the Time Equipment office in Bellevue to ensure they were partnering with a local vendor providing full-service support. They inspected the equipment, asked questions, met the service personnel, and performed actual transactions to resolve common problems they faced with the previous equipment.
Time Equipment installed six TIBA MP-60 entry stations and seven new SW-60 exit terminals at various parking lots throughout the Des Moines Marina and the Des Moines Beach Park. The exit terminals included new NAYAX credit card readers, allowing for EMV payment security payments as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Finally, 13 new articulating Magnetic Gates finished the installation at the Des Moines Marina and Beach Park.
License Plate Recognition (LPR) was also purchased for the Des Moines Marina as this will increase traffic flow during the summer peak months when traffic is at maximum capacity. In addition, the LPR will improve the security of customer vehicles and property by recording the license numbers of vehicles coming and going.
Scan to Pay is an additional option selected by Des Moines that allows customers to snap a picture of a QR code posted at the site, which will take them to a website to pay for their parking. With this option, the LPR picks up their plate, and the customer will be treated like a monthly user. The customer will not have to stop and display their paid ticket at the exit, as the system will know they have already paid.
In Phase 2 of the project, the Redondo Boat Launch location will be added. The Redondo Boat Launch will comprise 3 TIBA MP-60 entry stations and 2 TIBA SW-60 exit stations. The entry stations can also collect the parking fee in advance. At Redondo, users will be able to purchase a daily pass upon entry that would allow them to go in and out of the lot multiple times during the day so they could launch their boat and then repark the vehicle and trailer in the lot and do this a second time when retrieving the boat at the end of the day. The gates for the Redondo boat launch are similar to the ones in Des Moines. However, these gates have 15’ gate arms and have slower opening/closing times to accommodate vehicles with boat trailers.
As the leading expert in parking control systems in the Northwest, Time Equipment Company simplifies parking by offering seamless and reliable systems. Time Equipment Company is the exclusive provider of TIBA Parking equipment in the Northwest.
For over 30 years, TIBA Parking Systems has provided innovative solutions for the parking market, resulting in reliable, user-friendly products that lower the initial acquisition price and ongoing maintenance cost. TIBA has successfully implemented this by focusing on software development while continuing to enhance and support its reliable hardware platforms. As a result, this system allows owners to keep their capital investment down while still enjoying the latest software functionality.
