At roughly 1.6 million square feet, the Parking Addition and Consolidated Rental Car (PACR) facility being constructed at Portland International Airport easily has the biggest footprint of any current project in the metro area.

It’s a whole lot of structural steel.

“It’s just a really, really big structure,” said Chris Hermreck, a senior project manager with general contractor JE Dunn Construction. “We’re building this garage that’s the size of these entire two (existing) buildings.”

The 2,400-space parking garage, designed by YGH Architecture, is being constructed via a progressive design-build contract. The new, seismically resilient (category 4) structure will hold Port of Portland offices, long-term parking, rental car service and offices, and a parking toll plaza.

The latter is already up and running, which enabled demolition and clearance of the old plaza, which sat where the new parking garage is on the rise. A new garage for rental car fueling, cleaning and storage has also been constructed.

One of the most significant phases of work in the entire project is under way: Ironworkers from Phoenix, Arizona-based Schuff Steel Co. have begun structural work on the 100,000-square-foot office building and five-level parking garage. Also, Carr Construction has been contracted to perform miscellaneous steel work.

Up to 50 ironworkers could be on site at one time when steel work reaches its peak later this summer, Hermreck estimated. The first column was set April 20, he added, and completion of structural work is anticipated sometime during the fourth quarter of this year.

Along with the sheer scope of work, steel erection is also challenged by the project location inside restricted Federal Aviation Administration airspace. This meant a traditional tower crane could not be used on site. Instead, crews are using a massive crawler crane with an articulated boom arm.

“This was a specially considered crane for a lot of reasons,” Hermreck said. “For capacity, and also because of the way it lays down at night. This has the reach and capacity and also the ability to get low enough.”

PACR is part of the five-year, $2 billion-plus PDX Next program in which nearly all of Portland International Airport is receiving upgrades. Construction of a new main terminal, the so-called T-Core project, is the centerpiece.

When it comes to PACR, work involves modifications to the existing P2 parking structure as well as significant improvements to surface roadways and underground utilities. Existing parking garages will connect to the new one.

JE Dunn is self-performing the concrete work for this project, while DeWitt Construction continues excavation and pile driving to accommodate construction of the new parking structure. Other major subcontractors on the job include Oregon Electric Group and JH Kelly Mechanical.

Once the new garage is complete, a temporary exit road will be shut down and a new exit connecting the new P3 garage and exit plaza will be installed.

The entire project should wrap up in 2021, according to the Port of Portland.

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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.

“We’re really looking at it more as a transportation improvement around the whole airport,” 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 – 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.

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

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.

“It’s super complex, and we’re moving everything around,” she said. “It’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.”

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Excavation and foundation work is under way on 250 Taylor, a 10-story office building spanning a half block on Southwest Taylor Street between Second and Third avenues. Turner Construction Co. is the general contractor for the project, which was designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects for Third & Taylor Development.

Work at the site began last summer with demolition of a single-story commercial building and the six-story Ancient Order of United Workmen Temple building. Demolition work was completed in early November 2017, and Turner Construction crews returned to the site in March. Currently, DeWitt Construction crews are busy installing soldier pile and tie-backs, and removing dirt from the site to accommodate a two-level parking garage. The project should be fully excavated within two weeks.

Pours of the foundation, a mat footing three to six feet thick consisting of about 5,000 cubic yards of concrete, will be completed over the course of three Saturdays next month. A luffing crane will be installed in June as well. The parking garage and electrical vault will be poured over the course of the summer, and the structure will be back at street grade around September. All ten stories above grade will consist of post-tensioned concrete self-performed by Turner Construction. The project is slated for completion by fall 2019.

Because the site’s southwest portion abuts the 124-year-old Auditorium Building, extra care has been taken in excavating and shoring along that portion of the property. Excavation that would normally be done in five-foot lifts was instead done in three-foot lifts, and crews were limited to cutting only what could be lagged and backfilled before end of day.

Construction crews also had to take extra precaution to not disturb an 18-inch cast-iron water line that was built in the early 1900s and runs through the site. Temporary shoring was built to retain the dirt around the pipe and ensure that it didn’t move, and the project team worked closely with the city during permitting to ensure that tie-backs are all set at proper depth and angle in order to avoid the pipe.

The project team also includes KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural and civil engineering), Glumac (mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering), GeoDesign Inc. (geotechnical engineering) and Lango Hansen Landscape Architects.

The office building is part of a nearly full-block development that will also include a 20-story hotel, also designed by Ankrom Moisan Architects and to be built by Turner Construction. That project is in the permitting phase.

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