Southwest Airlines Maintenance Hangar

The hangar has space for three Boeing 737 aircraft, outside apron parking for eight 737s, and a taxilane connector onto the airfield. Woolpert oversaw both the design team and the construction manager at risk (CMAR) contractor to ensure the program met Southwest’s standards and complied with DEN’s needs and requirements. This project required extensive coordination with various utility companies (Xcel Energy, Denver Water, and Century Link) and multiple DEN departments (planning, environmental, design/architectural, engineering, airport operations, and facilities and maintenance).

As the first tenant funded, non-DEN owned, development project at the Airport, this project presented a series of unique challenges. To address these challenges, Woolpert successfully employed communication and change management strategies to ensure close collaboration with various stakeholders. The team held weekly coordination meetings to work through a focused discussion point for each of the various stakeholder groups in attendance. Woolpert’s small and dynamic team successfully completed the design review and permitting of a $100M project—from concept to groundbreaking—in a nine-month timeframe.

Woolpert incorporated this collaboration strategy into the construction process. Weekly meetings are held with the DEN Project Manager to provide status updates and to ensure the project aligns with the other Airport activities. The team also organizes weekly meetings with DEN Operations to identify risks that may impact construction and to guarantee construction does not impact airfield operations. The team’s close partnership with DEN kept the project on-track and under-budget.