August 13: Unparalleled Airport development

Tomorrow, The 2nd terminal of San Diego International Airport opens, which has been under construction since 2009. The total cost is $45M less than the budget, which was completed at $907M. Equipped with new gear and innovative design, the airport looks to benefit the regional economy by $10M each year.

• 460,000 ft^2 expansion including 10 new jet gates (designed for newest models) in addition to the older 7 gates.
• Silver Certification from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
• 7000 employees during construction, also increasing concessions employees by 600 (+45%)
• 1200 foot long elevated roadway for people leaving from the airport.
• "Sunset Cove", a fully windowed wall (minimal columns) overlooking the setting sun on the West.
• 50 feet tall, angled outward from the ground, and curved from top-to-bottom and side-to-side
• Can Allow 12" movement for earthquakes (!)
• 12 checkpoint lanes (29000 ft^2)
• Outlets furnished on 1/2 of seating 
• 21000 ft^2 car rental space, reducing traffic and re-purposing space (12 agencies total in the space)
• Almost half ($415M) of contributions were from local businesses
• Baggage claim is 30% more efficient (motors)
• Plan to recycle used oil from the airport restaurants
• Stone Brewing, Phil's BBQ, and Brook's Brothers are on the list of shops.

Most interesting to me was that this project was completely configured through Building Information Modeling (BIM) to predict problems and engineering constraints, which will undoubtedly lead to unparalleled longevity. The question remains: what to do with Terminal 1, which is over 50 years old... I see the county struggling with improvements since Tijuana airport is increasing traffic with the completion of Millenia, and Brown Airfield looks to do vast improvements as an executive airfield. These should both rank tops on the county budget docket and most likely with regional businesses.