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The five-year, $2 billion-plus PDX Next program calls for upgrading nearly all of Portland International Airport, piece by piece. Construction of a new main terminal is the heart of the initiative. But another critical project now under way will add a new six-story, 2,400-space parking garage, a four-story office building with an on-site car rental facility and a new exit plaza.

The new Parking Additions and Consolidated Rental Car Facility is expected to significantly help travelers and airport employees enter and exit the grounds.

鈥淲e’re really looking at it more as a transportation improvement around the whole airport,鈥� Port of Portland spokeswoman Kama Simonds said.

YGH Architecture and JE Dunn Construction are using a progressive design-build model that allows for rapid and timely changes as needed.

The scope of work includes new offices for airport operations, additional long-term parking, a consolidated rental car facility, new rental car offices and a new and relocated parking toll plaza. Efforts that will enable these additions include modifications to the existing P2 parking structure as well as significant upgrades to surface roadways and underground utilities.

Work began over a year ago, and much has taken place since. The exit plaza building and travel lanes are nearly complete, and a new parking garage for rental car fueling, cleaning and storage has also been constructed. Another important portion of the project involves moving underground utilities out of the new buildings’ footprint.

JE Dunn is self-performing the concrete work for this project, and plenty of that remains 鈥� especially for the new parking structure. Crews are also building temporary ramps from the existing parking structures to provide egress while the new parking garage is built.

Finally, DeWitt Construction crews are excavating and pile driving to accommodate construction of the new parking structure. Because of the sensitivity of the radar systems and others used in the airport control tower, vibratory pile driving is being used instead of traditional drilling.

Much of the work involves temporary structures or solutions that will enable crews to complete permanent ones. That’s the case with a roadway being built to connect the parking structures with the new exit plaza. Once the new garage is complete, the temporary road will come out and a new roadway running straight east from the new P3 garage to the new exit plaza will be built.

鈥淯ltimately, they will all come out on level three on P3, and it will be an elevated roadway all the way out of here,鈥� said Anna Tindall, a Port of Portland civil engineering inspector. 鈥淵ou can see the squares down there 鈥� those are the piles they’ve already driven for the elevated roadway. This will all end up being an elevated roadway.鈥�

Another crucial part of the will be the addition of a second light-rail track to the airport terminal. Currently, TriMet‘s MAX Red Line moves to and from the main terminal via a single spur line that will be replaced. The addition of a second track will ease MAX scheduling throughout the system.

Various phases of this project will roll out in stages. The new rental car storage garage is already up and running, while the new exit plaza should open in November. Then the temporary road will be constructed to clear space for construction of the P3 garage. But in the meantime, ironworkers are already building the rebar cages for the concrete beams that will tie the P2 and P3 structures together.

The complicated dance of scheduling and logistics should produce a finished parking garage by mid-2021, Simonds said.

鈥淚t’s super complex, and we’re moving everything around,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t’s crowded, and we’re making these small, micro-adjustments to make it better. But a big fix is still a couple of years off.鈥�