Similar to Walker Parking Consultants, Denver International Airport (DIA) is celebrating an anniversary this year! And what better way to celebrate than to make the airport even more desirable for its patrons?!
Published in the Colorado Real Estate Journal
Walker has begun design for a new 1,795 space parking structure at DIA. This will be DIA’s first cast-in-place, post-tensioned garage, along with being DIA’s first design-build project. Development of the four-story facility, which will be located on the southeast corner of the Jeppesen Terminal, is utilizing the design-build approach. This is one of the largest design-build parking projects ever developed at a U.S. airport, with Walker serving as the designer and construction being overseen by Swinerton Builders. The $46 million project is expected to be completed in the summer of 2016. Walker has designed parking structures at over 80 airports nationwide and will leverage our 50 years of parking design experience to deliver the project on an accelerated design schedule.
“This is a landmark airport parking project,” said Bob Stanley, PE, LEED AP, Managing Principal of our Denver office. “Most airports don’t think of design-build as an option for large parking facilities. However, this approach can provide significant benefits, providing a streamlined approach to promote cost savings and an overall reduction in the project delivery schedule. When you consider that most airports rely on parking as vital revenue sources, the time saved in developing new facilities can have a very positive effect on an airport’s bottom-line.”
The development of the new Jeppesen Terminal parking facility is part of a larger expansion project that will include the construction of an additional 261 parking spaces adjacent to the north end of the east parking garage. Another 430 spaces were recently added to the east and west economy lots through a redesign of the current layout. Upon completion of this project, DIA will offer a total of 19,496 garage parking spaces, and will manage a total of 43,275 parking spaces!
The projects are part of a package of upgrades aimed at improving the experience for DIA’s parking customers. In 2014 the airport added reserved parking spaces in the east and west parking garages (available here), and electric vehicle charging stations were installed in late 2013. DIA also recently completed a project that retrofit more than 5,400 lights in the existing parking garages with energy-efficient LED fixtures to improve lighting and reduce energy consumption.
Denver International Airport is the 15th-busiest airport in the world and the fifth-busiest airport in the United States. With more than 52 million passengers traveling through the airport each year, DIA is one of the busiest airline hubs in the world’s largest aviation market. DIA is the primary economic engine for the state of Colorado, generating more than $26 billion for the region annually.
If you would like more information, please contact Bob Stanley, PE, LEED AP.