Austin-Sundt Rental Car Center at San Diego Airport

Project Description

The new consolidated rental car center at San Diego International Airport is a massive two-million square-foot structure that houses 12 rental car companies, a customer service building, a quick-turn-around car prep facility and a 5,400-car ready/return area. The project was the first major component of the airport’s long-range plan to reduce airport traffic congestion and bring passengers closer to Interstate 5 and commuter rail lines.

The new facility is helping to improve air quality by removing multiple shuttle vans from the streets (going from 81 to just 16) and greatly simplifies the trip to and from a single, centralized rental car lot for passengers.

Sundt’s joint venture team placed 97,500 cubic yards of concrete on the 24-acre site – enough to build a 362-mile sidewalk from San Diego International Airport to Sky Harbor in Phoenix. The concrete at the rental car center was placed in 12 months, the equivalent of pouring about an acre a week.

The center is the largest concrete building in San Diego. Constructing it has required 3,000 craft employees, 169 trade partners and almost 1.2 million work hours to date.

The facility also includes:

2,000,000 square feet of floor area

2,800 concrete piles supporting the building foundation

25 million pounds of rebar

1.5 million square feet of formwork

956 precast panels forming the building skin