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The saying 鈥渘o small feat鈥� barely encapsulates construction of the RCC Building at Portland International Airport.

The new six-story, 90,000-square-foot building (also known as the Parking Additions and Consolidated Rental Car facility, or PACR) holds the Transportation Security Administration‘s Portland headquarters, a rental car center, the port police headquarters and a central communications center.

General contractor JE Dunn Construction completed the RCC Building project on schedule in early July after three years of work. Meanwhile, the firm also is serving as the general contractor for 鈥淧3鈥� 鈥� a seven-story, 1.65-million-square-foot parking structure adjacent to the building. That project is expected to conclude by early November.

The JE Dunn Construction crew included superintendent Jeff Byrne, project manager Stacey Flint, project engineer Sage Guttes and field engineer Kelsey Chan.

This was the first time Byrne worked on a project with a team of women, he said.

鈥淲e couldn’t have done it without any one of us,鈥� he said.

There were 13 different design packages, six sets of project specifications, and 11 different general contracting permits for the RCC Building. Most projects just have one general contracting permit, Flint said.

Before constructing the foundation, the team spent over a year performing preliminary site work such as rerouting traffic and nearly 1,600 lineal feet of utility piping 鈥� including the main power-feed to the whole control tower.

鈥淭his project has been an absolute beast 鈥� a pleasure, but a beast of a project,鈥� Flint said. 鈥淚t’s huge. It’s complex.鈥�

The site is near a busy airport that sees an average of 13,000 flights per month. The RCC Building sits between a runway, an airport terminal, a parking structure, the central utility plant, and a quick turnaround facility for rental car companies to clean and refuel motor vehicles.

When asked about the overarching challenges of the project, Flint said there were many.

鈥淩eally honestly, the permits, the drawing packages and the amount of preparatory enabling work we needed to do, and the complexity and the danger of the work being underground,鈥� she said.

The underground work was for the Underground East Pedestrian Tunnel to link the Federal Aviation Administration tower, the central utility plant and 鈥淧2鈥� (the existing parking structure). The tunnel had less than a foot of clearance on either side of it. Plus, with the weight of a parking structure, a control tower and a utility plant pressing down, the tunnel’s sides were put under immense pressure.

鈥淲e basically slipped this tunnel in there,鈥� Flint said.

Meanwhile, both the parking structure and the RCC Building are loaded with seismic resiliency. With the latter serving as a command center for PDX operations, it was imperative that mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems be resilient. Isolated seismic floors in both the communications center and a data center will help ensure that. During a sizable earthquake, the entire building could be shaking, but each floor will remain stable 鈥� thanks to square, metal frames underneath that have wheels and are bolted down by a spring.

Also, running through the middle of the tunnel is the duct bank that holds all fiber-optic cables for PDX. Workers had to uncover the duct bank underground very carefully, Flint said. Any hard knock to the duct bank, she said, would cause all internet service at the airport to twitch.

鈥淭hat’s how sensitive it is,鈥� she said.

The work had to be done with hand tools because chipping wasn’t allowed. Once the duct bank was exposed, the crew completely encased it in steel scaffolding for support.

鈥淲e had our fingers crossed and breath held many times,鈥� Flint said.

The duct bank had to be crossed seven times during construction, but building the tunnel around it was the hardest, Flint said.

鈥淭hank goodness we did that almost two years ago now,鈥� she said. 鈥溾�� You walk through it and are like 鈥楳an, this sucked,’ but we did it.鈥�

The RCC Building was built in two phases, with 13 phases of work beforehand. More than 110 trade partners participated.

鈥淚 think that it was a great challenge 鈥� one of the most logistically complex projects that I have been a part of,鈥� Byrne said.

Touting opportunities for women

Working on a team with mostly women wasn’t new for Flint. The first time she worked on a project full time for JE Dunn, she served as a project engineer; there was a female project manager and a male superintendent. Her next project had the same team composition.

鈥淗onestly not uncommon for my life to have a strong 鈥� female-led project, and I’m really thankful for that,鈥� Flint said. 鈥淚’m trying to heavily recruit women into the industry. I think they just need to know that they can do this and that this is a viable and extremely rewarding career option for them.鈥�

Flint started in construction 10 years ago via a chance meeting, she said. There were significantly fewer females in the industry at that time, she added.

鈥淭hen the fact that my first project had a female project manager who was an absolute rock star 鈥� it was just like 鈥榳ow,’ and this is awesome and something that we can do,鈥� she said.

This was the first time Flint worked with Guttes and Chan.

鈥淭hey are absolutely the future of construction for the JE Dunn Portland office,鈥� Flint said. 鈥淧roud of this entire team.鈥�