Construction collaboration to build SJC’s Interim Facility wins international honors
SAN JOSE, CA—Mineta San José International Airport (SJC), Hensel Phelps (HP), Fentress Architects, Southwest Airlines and OrgMetrics LLC together won the International Partnering Institute’s (IPI) distinguished Diamond Partnering Level Award for their construction collaboration in building SJC’s Interim Facility in Terminal B. IPI honors organizations and individuals who have worked to make the construction industry more collaborative for a successful outcome.
SJC’s Interim Facility was built as a temporary solution to accommodate SJC’s rapid passenger growth over the past four years. Six additional gates were added in this temporary facility to meet Silicon Valley’s ongoing demand for travel at SJC. Additionally, the Interim Facility is intended to serve passengers until the Airport’s future expansion of a new terminal is realized, as a part of the Airport’s Updated Master Plan.
Planning for the Interim Facility Project began in early 2018, with a fast-paced schedule to open four gates as soon as feasible. Roughly four months into planning, Airport officials saw an opportunity to fund two additional gates, resulting in a total of six new gates housed in the interim facility – all planned, designed, built, and operational in under a year.
“The success of this very aggressive 11-month timeline is credited to the partnership and shared vision of our partners and stakeholders,” said John Aitken, SJC Director of Aviation. “We are grateful to our Airline and Construction partners who provided strong teams to work with us in San Jose, and also to IPI for recognizing the value of this collaboration. While the new space succeeded in meeting our need at the time during daily record-breaking passenger growth, it now also offers us added flexibility to accommodate new realities such as social distancing.”
OrgMetrics LLC, a professional partnering facilitator, successfully guided the team through each phase of the construction project. With regular partnering sessions and a highly performing team, the first five gates opened in June 2019, while the final gate opened in time for the busy holiday traffic in November 2019.
In addition to the six additional gates, the $58 million Interim Facility provides more concessions space, additional restrooms, and allows for more flight scheduling flexibility for airlines to support current airport operations and future growth.
HP served as the primary construction contractor for the Interim Facility, while Fentress Architects provided the design of the building. Currently, all six gates in the Interim Facility are operated by Southwest Airlines.