b'PARKINGFSD 17northeastern Nebraska. Scheduled service reaches nearly 20At first, a garage seemed a little far-fetched for the size of destinations, with traffic evenly balanced among four airlines:airport they were, Braunagel says. But even in 2011, they were Allegiant, American, Delta and United. A fifth, Frontier, maintains arunning into parking constraints and foreseeing those constraints smaller presence.worsening with their steady passenger growth. Last year, nearly two-thirds of FSDs 1.3 million annualA request for proposals was issued in January 2020 and KLJ passengers were nearby residents, and most flew for leisurewas selected that March to handle overall project management and purposes. King notes that air traffic is busy throughout the year,civil site designs. Kimley-Horn was subcontracted for structural especially during autumn when visitors fly in for pheasant huntingdesign and parking consulting, while two Sioux Falls firmsTSP season. Snowbirds typically leave during late winter, while summerand Confluencehandled garage architecture and landscape is packed with outbound locals taking family vacations. Theres noarchitecture, respectively. peak season, per se; business is steady year-round, he adds. Design was finalized in spring 2022 and construction began that The constant traffic significantly strained FSDs surface parking lots,fall led by general contractor Henry Carlson Construction, another and obstacles on all sides prevented expanding the existing facilitiesSioux Falls business. At peak, 80 to 100 skilled workers were on horizontally. Rail lines and a diversion canal for the Big Sioux Riverthe job site.cut off development options east of the airport. Hangars stand to theConcrete and asphalt work was limited to warmer months, but north; the airfield lies to the west; and extending surface parking tooconstruction was phased so interior tasks could continue during far south would have penetrated the runway protection zone.cold, wet periods. The garage was built as a poured-in-place, Instead, FSD went vertical by removing roughly 200 short-termpost-tension structure and the lobbies used precast concrete. The surface parking spaces to carve out the footprint for a multistoryframe of the 80-foot-long steel skybridge was fabricated offsite garage. After construction was complete, theand transported to the airport via trucks under police escort. It was net gain was about 770 parking stalls. installed in just one day to minimize surface traffic closures while KLJ of Bismarck, ND was the projectscommercial travel continued. engineering lead. Jake Braunagel, its aviationThe cooperation among all of the entities really made the whole group leader based in Sioux Falls, says thatprocess so smooth, says Braunagel, whose firm has worked as a FSDs garage was a long time coming forconsultant to FSD for nearly 15 years.Midwestern travelers. A preliminary parking study was conducted in 2011, though workJAKE BRAUNAGELdidnt move forward for nearly a decade. AirportImprovement.comNovember | December 2024'