Hollywood Burbank Airport is a small airport, hosting only 14 gates in the Burbank area. In 2016, the city approved the proposal to upgrade the airport by building a new larger structure on the other side of the taxiway. While this new facility will maintain its small gate count, it will provide more amenities for its passengers including rest areas, restaurants, better security, and elevated jet bridges. Silverado was awarded the contract for the initial work of this new project in Fall of 2023 by the joint venture team of Holder-Pankow-TEC.

The site consisted of three parking lots with various trees, fencing and utilities to be removed. The challenges with this part of the scope of work was that this site is sandwiched between the active air traffic control tower, the live runway, and a busy Amazon warehouse. The team had to be very mindful of which utilities were marked for demolition and which needed to be protected, as well as being mindful of keeping all debris onsite and not on the airfield.

Despite the ownership of the property, the history of the site was not well maintained. In addition to the approximately 46 acres of parking lot on the surface, there were areas of older parking lot that had been buried and paved over with no record of the fill. In total, the team had grinded and stockpiled about 70,000 tons of asphalt grindings and base. This material is to be reused on site as road base for both temporary construction roads as well as the final conditions under the taxiway.

This major earthwork scope includes removing and recompacting the undocumented fill that was present over a majority of the site (up to six feet below grade), rebalancing the site for the new elevations to allow for construction including construction roads/temp parking/building pads, and excavating for the proposed basements of the parking structure and the terminal. Original estimates had over 500,000 CY of soil being moved on site (not including the utility subcontractor’s scope). These two basement excavations generate approximately 95,000 CY in excess spoils, not including the slopes/ramps outside of the building footprint. The final back fill of these slopes after partial construction will finish our commitment to this contract.

After we complete our work, the site will divide in half with the special Airport Operations Area (AOA) fence, creating the secure Airside on the west half adjacent to the runway as well as the open Landside leading to the street. While working on the initial contract, Silverado was invited to compete for the Airside and Landside grading packages from which we came away successful on both contracts. The Airside grading package is a minor scope for us with a large value as we’re managing the same Site Utility contractor as our initial contract while they perform more utility installation, as well as assisting with excavation and backfill for a concrete subcontractor as they install site retaining walls. The Landside grading contract includes more retaining walls, but also a reshaping of the Eastern half of the site outside of the AOA fence. Silverado will carve out the roads, walkways, bioretention for handoff to the paving/landscaping contractors.