MITCH JOHNSON: Parking woes plague Ingalls Shipbuilding

To the management and employees of Huntington Ingalls Industries, SUPSHIP, vendors and contractors:

The average parking slot at most retail stores measures 9 feet wide. Vehicle widths vary between 69 inches for compact cars and 102 inches for trucks. This leaves 12-34 inches between vehicles. The average parking slot width of vehicles in the HII parking lot is approximately 14.5 feet. Anywhere from 48 to 72 inches between vehicles.

For every 90 feet of linear parking at a retail store, there is room for 10 vehicles. The same 90 feet of parking at HII is only capable of fitting six vehicles and only if they are parked in a relatively straight line. Almost half of the vehicles are backed in to save a few precious seconds in the hysterical dash out of the shipyard at the end of the day -- a subject for another time.

While backing in may save a couple of seconds, most employees seem incapable of centering a vehicle into an imaginary box in close proximity and parallel to another vehicle. Most seem to be challenged by this alignment and proximity while pulling in a forward direction.

We also have those people who stretch the row by parking one or two cars at the end of the row and blocking access. It's just beyond comprehension that we brag about building, testing and operating the most technologically-advanced warships and yet seem to be incapable of simply parking a vehicle.

MITCH JOHNSON

Gautier

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 7:31 PM with the headline "MITCH JOHNSON: Parking woes plague Ingalls Shipbuilding ."