Construction of the AirTrain improvements and extension project have been completed at the San Francisco International Airport. Skanska USA, the company that headed the US$172 million project, began works on the AirTrain in 2016. The project has brought about easier connection between all terminals, the on-airport hotel, parking garages, the BART station, and the rental car center. As transportation to the long-term parking lots was previously provided by shuttle bus, this move is expected to extend the AirTrain guideways by 1,900ft and eliminate 600,000 miles of trips annually. LEED Gold were awarded to the two AirTrain Stations completed as part of the project certifications from the US Green Building Council.
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From the beginning, the project team coordinated with rental car facility management and airport officials to account for all potential issues as concepts turned into buildable specifications and shape the extension’s design elements. According to company officials, sustainable construction and design elements were prioritized at each stage of the project. This has resulted in the implementation of more than 50 sustainable practices including; installing a large solar photovoltaic (PV) system on the roof of the SFO Long Term Parking Garage with 2,700 PV panels that generates about 40% of the stations’ annual power needs, Recycling more than three quarters of construction and demolition debris, procuring building products and materials that comply with the rigorous LEED Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) emissions criteria to reduce concentrations of indoor chemical contaminants, and selecting building products and materials from manufacturers that transparently disclose products’ environmental lifecycle information to reduce global environmental impact.
“The completion of the AirTrain extension to long-term parking realized our vision to provide a seamless, clean energy connection between all of our terminals, parking, hotel and rental car facilities. At the same time, the project continued our tradition of industry leadership in sustainable building design, construction and operation. This LEED Gold certification is a tribute to the dedicated project team who transformed this vision into reality,” said the airport director, Ivar C Satero.
