Center will help reduce traffic on Harbor Drive, removing 50-75 truck trips each day
SAN DIEGO – 2012-11-15 — /travelprnews.com/ — San Diego International Airport held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today to celebrate the opening of its new receiving and distribution center (RDC). More than 60 people attended the ceremony, including Airport Authority Board members and business and community leaders.
Located on the north side of the airport, the RDC is a 23,000 square-foot central delivery location for food, beverage, retail and other goods. The RDC will help reduce traffic on surrounding roadways by centralizing all truck deliveries – this will eliminate 50-75 truck trips per day on Harbor Drive. Deliveries will be made to the RDC with access via the north side of the airport; goods will be transported to the terminals via on-airport roadways by Bradford Airport Logistics, the airport’s delivery logistics partner.
“We’re excited to bring this new facility online,” said Thella F. Bowens, President/CEO of an Diego County Regional Airport Authority. “Not only does it bring significant efficiency and security benefits, but it is yet another example of the airport’s commitment to sustainability. The RDC will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and water and energy consumption through a number of innovative measures.”
The Airport Authority is pursuing Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Build Council for the RDC, which would make it the first LEED Goldcertified receiving and distribution facility in the world.
The RDC’s sustainable features include:
- Delivery trucks powered by biodiesel created from recycled cooking oil – as part of the airport’s new cooking oil recycling program, waste cooking oil will be recycled by New Leaf Biofuel, a San Diego-based biodiesel company, and used to produce biodiesel. The resulting fuel will be used to power the RDC’s delivery vehicles.
- Recycled construction waste – more than 95 percent of construction waste produced by the project was diverted from landfills by being recycled or salvaged.
- Use of recycled materials – when possible and financially feasible, building materials were selected to maximize the use of recycled content and regionally extracted/ manufactured materials – 29 percent of the RDC’s building materials are recycled.
- Water-efficient plumbing fixtures – utilizing 40 percent less potable water.
- Drought-tolerant landscaping – requires no permanent irrigation; combined with water-efficient plumbing and other water-saving efforts, this reduces the facility’s overall water consumption by 54 percent.
Funding for the RDC was made possible through a public-private partnership. This innovative model allowed the Airport Authority to acquire essential facilities without using its bonding capacity, as well as build the project more quickly than would have been possible using a traditional public works construction model. This is the first construction project in the airport’s history to utilize a public-private partnership. Project costs for the RDC were approximately $9.8 million.
The RDC will begin operation on Monday, November 19.
For more information about the RDC, including renderings and images, visit the online media kit.
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Contact:
Katie Jones
619.400.2884/kjones@san.org