Denver International Airport adding a new parking garage on the west side

The new west-side parking module will add about 2,000 spaces to the 38,000-plus parking spaces already at DIA.

By Chryss Cada

Improvements at Denver International Airport will create more places to park, but they won't offer any help in actually finding your car.

A fourth module of the parking garage being added on the west side of DIA's Jeppesen Terminal will look identical to the existing modules but will include structural changes not visible from the exterior.

"Mod 4 has a new and improved design that will help to save on maintenance costs," said John Luthi, general superintendent for Denver's FCI Constructors Inc., the general contractor on the new parking structure. "They had movement they didn't anticipate in the other garages, so changes were made to avoid that movement in this structure."

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High Security

The new module will add about 2,000 spaces to the 38,000-plus parking spaces at DIA - but don't expect to pull into the new garage until next holiday season. Construction on the $41.9 million, 18-month project began this summer and isn't expected to be completed until late 2007.

"Right now we're doing roadwork more than anything," Luthi said. "We're having to shift a road that ran right through the footprint of the garage."

Preconstruction started in June, with FCI opening up an office on the site in July.
Denver's Harold Massop & Associates is the architect on the project.

Since the project is on airport property, strict security requirements must be followed on the jobsite.

"There's a lot of coordination involved in working with every entity to make sure everyone has the proper badging to start work," Luthi said.

The job was under way as of late September, with the hole dug and work on the retaining walls started. When completed, Mod 4 will connect with the terminal via a pedestrian bridge.

As construction of a new module begins, DIA's other garages are having some work done. Phase II of the airport parking structure's moisture-protection project is under way in Mod 1.

"The project is a combination of repair work and preventative measures," explained Michael Steffens, assistant deputy manger of maintenance and engineering/construction at DIA. "We're replacing sections where moisture has gotten into the concrete and is rusting the rebar. In addition, we'll apply caulking sealant to prevent further damage."

John Rohre Contracting is the general contractor on the $6.1 million Mod 1 project.
Kirt Courkamp, branch manager of the Denver office, said the project will include both full-depth and partial-depth structural concrete work - and an "awful lot of sealant."

"I've worked on a lot of parking garages, and this type of damage isn't uncommon in our climate," he said. "It would fall under the category of routine maintenance.
This is something that needs to be done every five to 10 years."

Rohre contracting completed Phase I of the project, which consisted of similar work on the top floor of DIA's parking garages.

Steffens said that the contractors start at the top and work their way down. "We close three floors at a time, averaging 400 to 900 parking spots closed at any given time," he said.

A 3500-space expansion of the Pikes Peak parking lot was opened in November 2005 to offset parking losses during construction on the existing garages.

The moisture-protection project began this summer and is expected to be completed by late summer 2008.

Runway Work

Also in the routine maintenance category, DIA is rehabilitating sections of its runway system.

"Runway maintenance is an ongoing thing because there is a very high level of standards for airfield concrete," Steffans said. "You can't have a chuckhole on a runway or you could cause serious damage to an airplane. It doesn't take much to shut a runway down."

A pothole three in. deep with sides at a 45 degree angle is enough to close a runway to air traffic. To avoid such closures, airport maintenance monitors the airfield "every day, several times a day" and regularly replaces concrete panels, Steffans said.

Nineteen concrete panels were replaced on Runway 7/25 and about a dozen on Taxiways B4 and F this spring. In August and September, 34 concrete panels were replaced on Runway 16L and 34R. The final phase of the project will replace 92 panels on Taxiway CN by early November. The project will cost an estimated $10.6 million.

In addition to a smooth trip down the runway, visitors to DIA will enjoy two new gates on Concourse C, thanks to a recently completed construction project. The Concourse C west apron expansion project added Gates C28 and 29, which were operational by the end of August. The gates service passengers on US Air and America West Airlines. Plane-loading bridges and exterior pavement work were a part of the $5.7 million project, which began last summer.

"It was one of those projects where everything comes together and it goes very quickly," Steffans said. Interstate Highway Construction was the general contractor on the project.

Stay tuned for future projects out at the state's largest airport. "We make a plan for capital improvements every year," Steffans said. "It's a six year program because in this business, you really have to plan ahead."

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