CoatingsPro Magazine - January 2022
Airport Parking Application
Anthony Punt 2021-12-28 22:08:46
New LAX Parking Facility Gets Fresh Traffic Coatings
Back in the late 1920s, the city of Los Angeles created its first municipal airport that would connect it to the then-fledgling aviation industry. Since those humble origins nearly a century ago, Los Angeles International Airport — or LAX as it’s more commonly known — has become among the busiest airports not only in the United States but in the world, with more than 88 million travelers passing through its gates annually. Located 18 miles (29.0 km) southwest of downtown L.A., LAX is considered a major connection point for international visitors. Add those visitors to the nearly four million people who reside in L.A., and you have a recipe for the bumper-to-bumper traffic jams that the City of Angels is notorious for.
To solve this problem, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) — a branch of the L.A. city government that owns and operates LAX — launched a multi-billion-dollar plan to renovate its flagship airport. The plan included the construction of LAX Economy Parking, a new parking facility designed to relieve traffic congestion for passengers traveling via the airport, as well as to provide easier access to rental cars and more convenient spots for passenger pick-up and drop-off. This state-of-the-art parking structure stands four stories tall and includes approximately 4,300 new parking stalls spanning over 1.7 million square feet (157,935.2 m2).
LAWA’s leaders knew that if they built an advanced economy parking facility, visitors would come. But realizing this vision would take years of hard work and tons of resources to execute.
A Go-To Coating System
Construction began on the LAX Economy Parking project in July 2019, which meant that nearly two full years of work had been completed by the time Best Contracting Services, Inc. entered the scene in June 2021. A local full building envelope contractor for commercial, industrial, and institutional properties since 1982, Best Contracting was tasked with coating 575,000 square feet (53,419.2 m2) of the parking structure. More specifically, this included the entirety of the second through fourth floors, including electrical and utility rooms located on the second and third floors and the top lid of the concrete ramp found on the fourth, and final, floor.
According to Mike Calhoun of Best Contracting, who served as the onsite supervisor for the project, his company was brought in as a coatings subcontractor by Swinerton. Along with a competitive bid, the company’s size and experience were also decisive factors in securing the contract. “We’re one of the bigger outfits in town that is equipped to handle a project of that size,” said Calhoun.
Four months prior to the arrival of the Best Contracting crew, Swinerton and some of its subcontracting partners — the project had more than 30 subcontractors in total — installed the facility’s new broom finished concrete. For the next four months, between June and September of 2021, the crew applied two different materials. One was a waterproofing, self-adhering membrane that was applied directly to below-grade surfaces, such as basement walls, without any surface prepping required. The other was Poly-I-Gard 575FC (Fast Cure) Vehicular Traffic Deck System, which was used on all three floors since they were sure to receive a high volume of traffic. Made by Polycoat Products, this 100 percent solids, polyurethane/polyurea waterproof coating system is low odor and has no volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which enabled Best Contracting to remain compliant with California state laws.
As far as the Poly-I-Gard system is concerned, you can count Calhoun among its biggest fans: “Polycoat is always our go-to traffic coating system. I’ve used Polycoat for 27 years; I’m very familiar with them, love their products. So coming from an estimator standpoint — I was an estimator before, too — it’s very economical in terms of pricing and stuff like that. Anytime a job comes up for us, we always try to bid the job with Polycoat.”
“Poly-I-Gard 575FC is zero VOC, qualifies for a variety of LEED [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design] credits, and meets Title 24 and SRI [socially responsible investing] standards,” said Anthony Pérez, southwest regional sales manager for Polycoat. “It is a hybrid waterproofing system for heavy duty vehicular traffic. Along with being extremely cost effective in both material cost and labor requirements, Poly-IGard is manufactured right here in the USA.”
Working Fast and Finding Luck
Prior to the application of the Polycoat traffic coating, EER, Inc., a local flooring subcontractor, shotblasted the concrete floors to open up its pores and better enable the coating to penetrate them. Shotblasting the concrete allowed EER to achieve an International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) Concrete Surface Profile (CSP) 4–6 standard.
From there, the Best Contracting crew used V-shaped, ¼-inch (0.6 cm) crack chaser blades to open up the remaining cracks ¼-inch deep by ¼-inch wide (0.6 x 0.6 cm). They then sealed up those cracks using Sikaflex-2 C NS, a polyurethane-based elastomeric sealant with a non-sag consistency, and the crew applied that material using Albion caulking guns.
Now came time for the Poly-I-Gard 575FC system, starting with a coat of Polyprime 2180SC, a two-component epoxy primer that was applied using notched squeegees and followed up with 3/8” (1.0 cm) Purdy roller naps on 18-inch (45.7 cm) Wooster roller frames at 10–12 mils (254.0–304.8 microns) wet film thickness (WFT). The crew then laid down a layer of PC-260, a two-component elastomeric basecoat applied with notched squeegees and followed up with a roller at 24–26 mils (609.6–660.4 microns) WFT.
Finally, two gray-colored coats of Poly-I-Gard 295, a two-component, solvent-free polyurea-polyurethane aliphatic hybrid coating, were squeegeed and roll applied at 12–14 mils (304.8–355.6 microns) WFT. While typical polyurea coatings gel quickly, Poly-I-Gard 295 is a hybrid topcoat that allows applicators a curing window of up to 15 minutes. After the first coat of the 295 was applied, dry, rounded sand was broadcasted to refusal before the second coat was applied for a gray finish. And all the while, the crew used 2- and 4-inch chip (5.1 and 10.2 cm) brushes to brush around plumbing drainpipe penetrations and electrical conduits after each coat was applied.
The 8- to 12-member crew from Best Contracting worked six days a week to coat all 575,000 square feet of concrete. Despite the size and scale of the project, though, the crew remained undaunted. It helped that the facility didn’t present any unusual or difficult geometric areas to coat that would’ve lengthened the project’s timeline.
“It was all horizontal decking stuff, nothing vertical, just a standard, square parking structure,” Calhoun said. “It was just a simple in-and-out [project], really quick. We got lucky.”
On the Night Shift
With that said, there were still obstacles that Calhoun and his crew had to overcome. Given the fact that they were working during the summer months in sunny L.A., the crew had to contend with the effects of heat and sunlight on the coatings. In particular, they were concerned that outgassing bubbles would form as a result of the heat pulling solvents from the coating. As temperatures reached highs of 87–88 °F (30.5–31.1 °C) at the start of the project, Calhoun made a permanent switch to a night shift schedule that started at 6:00 p.m. and ran through the night. As he recalled, “It helped the guys who were working and installing the stuff during the middle of the day, and it definitely was better for the coatings to run [the job] at night, too.”
Unfortunately, there were times during the project when the coatings that the crew applied at night were ruined the following day. Said Calhoun, “Ultimately, our main challenge was fighting other contractors who would try to drive forklifts and stuff like that on [our coatings] during the daytime. So there were quite a bit of repairs that we had to do, and my biggest thing was keeping other contractors out of the way.”
When fencing and other protective measures failed to prevent subcontractors from disturbing freshly laid coatings, Swinerton installed onsite cameras to identify the responsible parties and make them accountable for the cost of repairs. “I think a lot of the contractors got the hint when they saw how expensive it was to repair, and that pretty much kept everybody out of our area,” Calhoun said.
According to Calhoun, the project’s general contractor did a great job keeping the 30-plus contractors coordinated. “Swinerton held a weekly scheduling meeting, and we sat in the trailer once a week for about two hours every Monday, from about 11:00 to 1:00, while they set everybody’s schedules.”
In addition, health and safety was a key concern, particularly with regard to COVID-19. Swinerton reps took daily temperature checks and made sure workers were wearing N95 masks and were safely distanced from one another.
In terms of personal protective equipment (PPE) specific to the job, Best Contracting crew members wore Pyramex hardhats, MCR Safety glasses, gloves, long-sleeved T-shirts, and work boots. Swinerton had safety inspectors monitor the crew to make sure they were wearing their PPE and following safety protocols — “They were pretty much the sheriffs in town,” said Calhoun — while LAWA had quality control experts onsite who took photos to make sure the crew was applying the VOC-compliant system properly.
A Noteworthy Success Story
After they finished coating the facility in September, Calhoun’s crew went back in October to install an additional 5,000 square feet (464.5 m2) of traffic coating. Both the company and the Poly-I-Gard 575FC system were singled out for praise by LAWA officials.
“It was all positive feedback,” Calhoun said. “Everyone loved the product. We had a lot of people saying, ‘Can I use it at home or in my garage?’ and that type of thing. And my guys got a lot of good feedback as well. They did a very, very good job.”
At long last, the LAX Economy Parking project was completed by October 2021, just in time for its triumphant unveiling. While news of an airport parking lot might not typically be a big deal in most cities, the scale of the LAX Economy Parking project was such that its opening drew many of the city’s key dignitaries, including L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
“As the third largest airport in the world, LAX is our gateway to the world — where dreams take flight — and we welcome the future of our city with open arms,” said Garcetti in a press conference when the facility opened. “LAX Economy Parking is a historic marker of progress in the midst of a once-in-a-generation transformation at the airport — bringing travelers a state-of-art facility that will help reduce congestion, enable our airport to realize its full potential, and continue to create a more seamless travel experience for millions of Angelenos and visitors.”
Calhoun admitted that it was one of the biggest traffic coating projects Best Contracting has ever done in its nearly four decades of existence. And in terms of local media coverage alone, it may be its most high-profile job as well. But even after the reporters are done covering this story, the Best Contracting crew will have the pleasure of knowing that their work will be seen and appreciated by visitors from across the world for years to come!
JOB AT A GLANCE
PROJECT:
Apply a fast cure traffic coating system to an economy parking facility at LAX
COATINGS CONTRACTOR:
Best Contracting Services Inc.
Gardena, CA
FB: bestcontractingservicesinc
SIZE OF CONTRACTOR:
Approximately 600 employees
SIZE OF CREW:
8–12 crew members
PRIME CLIENT:
LAWA
Los Angeles, CA
SUBSTRATE:
Broom finished concrete
CONDITION OF SUBSTRATE:
New
SIZE OF JOB:
575,000 sq. ft.
DURATION:
4 months
UNUSUAL FACTORS/CHALLENGES:
» The crew ran night shifts starting at 6:00 p.m. to prevent the coating system from outgassing from the summertime sun and heat.
» With more than 30 subcontractors on the project, Best Contracting had kept other crews from disturbing freshly coated areas.
MATERIALS/PROCESSES:
» Applied waterproofing self-adhering membrane to below-grade surfaces
» Had the concrete shotblasted to achieve an ICRI CSP 4–6 standard
» Opened up remaining cracks to ¼-inch deep x ¼-inch wide using V-shaped, ¼-inch crack chaser blades
» Sealed cracks using Sikaflex-2 C NS sealant from Albion caulking guns
» Notch squeegeed and roll applied Poly-I-Gard 575FC Vehicular Traffic
Deck System:
• Polyprime 2180SC primer at 10–12 mils WFT
• PC-260 basecoat at 24–26 mils WFT
• Two coats of Poly-I-Gard 295 at 12–14 mils WFT each, with sand broadcast to refusal in the first layer
» Used 2- and 4-inch chip brushes to brush around pipe penetrations after each coat was applied
SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS:
» Received daily temperature checks before entering jobsite, as well as wore face masks and worked at safe distances
» Wore standard PPE, including Pyramex hard hats and MCR Safety glasses
» Attended weekly scheduling meetings held by Swinerton
» Abided by state VOC compliance laws and had work supervised by quality control experts representing LAWA
VENDOR TEAM
Albion Engineering
Equipment manufacturer
Moorestown, NJ
MCR Safety
Equipment manufacturer
Memphis, TN
Polycoat Products, A Division of American Polymers Corp.
Coatings manufacturer
Santa Fe Springs, CA
FB: PolycoatProducts
Purdy by Sherwin-Williams
Equipment manufacturer
Cleveland, OH
Pyramex
Safety equipment manufacturer
Piperton, TN
Sika USA
Material manufacturer
Lyndhurst, NJ
The Wooster Brush Company
Equipment manufacturer
Wooster, OH
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