Albuquerque-based Gerald A. Martin is the construction manager for the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, a seven-member group appointed by the governor to oversee the facility. The company’s scope of work included participating in design reviews and providing comments during the preconstruction process, says Chris McMahan, the firm’s vice president of marketing and business development.

“For Gerald Martin, the major challenge at Spaceport America has been the coordination of all the general contractors on a remote site with accessibility issues,” he says. Many subcontractors are from larger cities such as Las Cruces or Albuquerque, which are more than an hour drive from the site.

The 110,152-sq-ft terminal hangar facility, which will house and operate the first commercial space flights for interested people, is being built by Summit West of Albuquerque, the sister company of Phoenix’ Summit Builders, and designed by the partnership of architects URS Corp., based in San Francisco, and Foster+Partners, London.

Expected to be completed in December, the facility has been designed to LEED gold standards. Los Angeles-based AECOM is providing the LEED and commissioning agents.

Built of structural steel, the three-story facility comprises the terminal, with two three-story east and west wings for administration and astronaut support, and the 47,000-sq-ft hangar for the spacecraft.

The roof structure consists of undulating 200-ft trusses. The north and south exterior elevations, which include hangar doors spanning 170 ft, consist of metal panels with patinas that blend with the natural setting. The east exterior elevation is an angled glass curtain wall to allow for ample daylighting plus viewing of the launch areas and taxi aprons. Building information modeling was used for the structural fabrication and erection.

“One of the unique features of the building is the west elevation, which will consist of a large earthen mound with a mechanically stabilized earth retaining wall,” says Karl Nicol, Summit’s project executive. “This type of retaining wall has never been used to create a wall that will also serve as part of the building.”

The mound will act as a natural thermal mass. It will contain approximately 2,000 linear ft of earth tubes that will help condition the air as it enters the building, Nicol says. The low-lying building form is designed to aid in funneling winds for natural ventilation during parts of the year.

Nicol says the circular shape of the building requires all construction to be built off radius dimensions. In addition, the terminal hangar facility will include custom entry doors, a colored stainless-steel bull-nose edge around the perimeter of the roof and a bridge structure that connects the third floor on the west to the third floor on the east side.

David Montoya Construction of Albuquerque completed separate contracts for the $29-million airfield runway and $6-million apron.

Designed by Molzen Corbin, the 200-ft-wide runway is 10,000 ft long. Montoya’s scope included taxiways, drainage and signage. The apron contract includes 47,000 sq yds of concrete and drainage and signage elements.

The runway is 14 in. of Portland cement concrete totaling 125,000 cu yds, above 81,000 tons of 4-in. asphalt base above 322,000 sq yds of 6-in. soil cement. The concrete and asphalt were produced using onsite batch plants and local materials.

The apron contract involved 6 in. of soil cement (8,000 cu yds), then 4 in. of asphalt (11,000 tons) and, on top, 14 in. of Portland Cement concrete pavement.

Project manager Robert Watson says, “Hot temperatures, low humidity and high winds were all problems to contend with in placing PCCP.”