Case Study of the Sustainable Parking Facility at Stewart International Airport

Stewart International Airport (SWF) is located west of Newburgh, New York, in the southern Hudson Valley, and 60 miles (88.5 km) north of New York City. It was originally developed in the 1930s as a military base to provide aviation training for the cadets at the nearby United States Military Academy at West Point. Over the years, it has grown into the major passenger airport for the mid-Hudson region and continues to serve as a military airfield. Currently, SWF houses the 105th Airlift Wing of the New York Air National Guard. In 1991, the commercial service airport went private when United Kingdom-based National Express Group was awarded a 99-year lease on the airport by its owner and operator at that time, the New York State Department of Transportation. On January 25, 2007, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) Board of Commissioners voted to acquire the remaining years of the airport's lease, effectively ending the privatization of SWF. The PANYNJ assumed control of the airport on November 1st ofthat year. Prior to taking over the airport, the PANYNJ projected that the airport's annual passenger traffic would soon be triple that of 2006. In 2007, Stewart International Airport achieved this and handled 970,000 passengers. At that time, it became apparent that the airport lacked adequate parking facilities to address the rapid increase of annual passengers and the holiday seasonal demands. Although air travel at SWF decreased following the recent economic downturn, demand for parking is expected to increase, backed by a 2010 customer survey at SWF that showed 65 percent of the airport's passengers arrive by personal car, and 28 percent use the airport's parking facilities. In addition, forecast passenger growth for the next decade projects passenger levels to ultimately exceed 2007 totals. This led the PANYNJ to embark on the expansion of the Terminal's Lot "A" public parking facility, increasing it from the current 8.7 acres to 15.1 acres. The PANYNJ Engineering Department issued Contract No. SWF 164.007 for expanding the parking lot facility. The expansion consists of a pervious asphaltic pavement and an extensive surface and subsurface storm drainage collection system. It is designed to collect, detain and allow infiltration of the 100-year storm run-off without any peak discharge into nearby streams and open water bodies, and also recharge the groundwater table. Best management design practices include the use of infiltration bio swales, a granular pavement sub-base with large void content, installation of "raintanks" and a sub-drainage piping system. In addition, a portion of the storm water run-off will be diverted into a cistern and utilized by an underground irrigation system with solar powered pumps for the watering of the parking lot's landscaped areas.