Swinerton provided general contracting services for the construction of a new 128,000-square-foot maintenance hangar and outbuildings for Southwest Airlines at Denver International Airport. In addition to the buildings, the 26-acre site has extensive paving for slab on grade hangar floor, taxiway, and parking. The hangar features a standing seam metal roof, parapet membrane, and under-drain in the building to protect the structure from expansive soils. Hangar doors include roll-ups, overhead, and security doors with controlled access. A large portion of the hangar structure is bolt-up steel.

The administrative office space is protected with a mix of wet and pre-action sprinkler systems. The hangar is protected by redundant systems – a preaction sprinkler system, and a high expansion foam fire suppression system. The foam suppression system is supplied by a 500,000-gallon water storage tank. This storage tank feeds a free-standing fire pump house, with two 3500gpm diesel-driven pumps, that then pumps through a 24” private fire main into a foam concentrate mixing skid, and out to foam generators located on the high roof of the hangar space. The building also has a megadoor that spans 270 feet and required coordination between all trades to ensure success with the tight tolerances required by the manufacturer.

“Working with Swinerton on our Denver hangar project, we’ve been really pleased with their project management skills – including working hand-in-hand with us to optimize the project to conserve capital spending to help us get through the COVID-19 pandemic impact on our overall business,” said Dan Landson, communication lead at Southwest Airlines.