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Dive brief:
- Crews broke ground last month on a 168,000-square-foot terminal expansion at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that will incorporate geothermal climate controlrainwater harvesting, LED lighting, automated building monitoring and other efficient green building systems.
- The project will involve adding two additional overhead doors and increasing space and passenger seating for two existing north doors, the said the Metropolitan Airports Commission in a press release. It will also include new restrooms, concession spaces and additional operational support areas for airlines and tenants at the north end of the terminal, MAC said.
- Improvements to the expanded north end of Terminal 2 are expected to reduce overall energy demand for heating and cooling 19%water drawn from the local water company for 56% and energy demand for interior and exterior lighting for 23% i 62%respectively, according to a MAC fact sheet shared with Facilities Dive.
Diving knowledge:
The prime contractor for the project is Fridley, Minn.-based Morcon Construction, according to Jeff Lea, MAC strategic communications manager.
The project team iLEED-Gold certification is being pursued with MSP’s Terminal 2 expansion project, which reflects the trend of US airport renovations or expansions incorporating sustainable building systems and materials. In October 2023, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport in Kentucky commissioned a $22 million geothermal heating and cooling systemthe largest to date at any airport in the United States.
In August, Portland International Airport in Oregon debuted an expanded main terminal – part of a $2.15 billion project to double the airport’s capacity, which includes an all-electric ground source heat pump system, a nine-acre wooden roof and 49 skylights to reduce the need for il· electric lighting
Airports in the United States are too electrification of terminal buildings and ground service equipment fleets like the The Federal Aviation Administration encourages airports to reduce their carbon emissions by 2050. Denver International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and Philadelphia International Airport, among other major airports, have taken significant steps to reduce carbon emissions ground fleet over the past decade, according to airport officials.
In Minneapolis, MSP received a $20 million grant earlier this year for the $263 million project through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Terminal Program. It is one of several ongoing, planned or proposed capacity expansion projects for Terminal 2 as part of the MSP Airport 2040 Long Term PlanMAC said.
The Terminal 2 expansion project advances MAC’s emissions reduction plans, said Ashley Vlasak, MAC’s project manager. Project planners considered “how we could sustain the technology that we were selecting and how it would fit into our long-term emissions goals,” Vlasak said.
The terminal’s new heating and cooling source will come from a four-well groundwater-based system developed by Minnesota-based Darcy Solutions, Vlasak said. The selection of Darcy Solutions for the terminal expansion project follows a successful single well “proof of concept” project, providing ground heating and cooling to a newly constructed airfield security control building , he said.
The system will allow for an 8.9% reduction in HVAC energy use for the north expansion, according to the MAC fact sheet. Crews will connect it to the terminal’s existing climate control system and replace significant amounts of HVAC equipment in the process, Vlasak said.
Any future expansion project at Terminal 2 would aim to incorporate ground-source heating and cooling, although FAA restrictions on airside infrastructure complicate site selection for additional holes, according to Vlasak. “You want the holes as close to the building as possible” to minimize heat loss in the pipes, he said.
Low-flow, water-efficient fixtures in terminal bathrooms will reduce water demand by 31% compared to conventional systems, MAC said. The expanded terminal’s rainwater collection system will collect approximately 540,000 gallons of water annually for use in toilets and urinals, reducing the amount of water taken from the local utility by 56%, according to the MAC brief .
The expanded terminal will feature improvements to the high-efficiency building envelope, including triple-glazed windows installed with bamboo framing, increased wall and ceiling insulation and airtight exterior details, MAC said. The bamboo curtain wall will be a first for the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and will reduce the project’s built-in carbon footprint, Vlasak said.
The project’s embodied carbon footprint will also be reduced through “optimized structural spans and column spacing, reduced carbon concrete mix, and the replacement of steel and concrete construction with mass timber construction,” according to the MAC brief . The optimized structural designs were modeled on previous MSP expansion projects, then modified to reduce carbon intensity, Vlasak said.
MAC expects the northward expansion of Terminal 2 to be complete by 2027. A concurrent project to add two new air gates at the south end of the terminal will open in November, MAC said.
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