Keeping San Diego Airport Running While Rebuilding Its Engine Room: A Turner Case Study

Turner and FlatironDragados modernized San Diego International Airport's Central Utilities Plant — without disrupting passengers or operations.

San Diego International Airport's Terminal 1 replacement — delivered by Turner and FlatironDragados — is one of the largest active airport construction programs underway in the United States, adding 30 new gates and earning an AGC Build America Merit Award. In addition to delivering passenger-centric amenities to make the airport experience easier and more comfortable, the team delivered on a quieter challenge: modernizing the airport's aging Central Utilities Plant while it continued to serve every passenger walking through the doors.

Challenge

The new, large-scale terminal required substantial upgrades to the airport’s Central Utilities Plant (CUP), originally constructed in 1995 and last upgraded in 2012. The CUP faced several challenges as it approached this expansion. The plant had to accommodate an estimated additional demand of 5,000 tons of cooling and 26 MMBH of heating, which far exceeded its existing capacity. Much of the equipment was outdated, including chillers, boilers, pumps, and control systems, and could not deliver the efficiency, resiliency, or redundancy that would be required to support the new terminal. At the same time, the CUP had to remain fully operational while construction was underway, with no disruption to passengers or ongoing terminal operations. The Turner-FlatironDragados team, also had to contend with site constraints, as the CUP sits adjacent to active facilities and within a paved lot, requiring careful planning to maintain safety and minimize interference with both airfield and roadway activity.

Solution

Instead of constructing a second CUP, stakeholders chose to modernize the existing plant, avoiding the operational and staffing demands of managing two facilities while maximizing return on investment. The upgrades included replacing two 800-ton chillers with two 1,250-ton units, adding a 625-ton heat recovery chiller with buffer tanks, expanding the cooling tower array with a new 1,250-ton tower, and installing a high-efficiency boiler. Pump systems were refurbished or replaced, and seven new variable frequency drives were added to improve control and efficiency.

To minimize disruption, much of the piping was prefabricated offsite by ACCO Mechanical in their Los Angeles fabrication shop with installation carefully phased. The team utilized offsite prefabrication as much as possible. Two chillers were taken offline at a time while the others maintained service, and temporary shutdowns for tie-ins were restricted to short, late-night windows. In parallel, a half-mile hydronics project connected the CUP to the new terminal, with piping installed at depths up to twenty feet, including bores beneath an active roadway to keep traffic flow uninterrupted.

Results

The Central Utility Plant upgrade was delivered well ahead of schedule, completed four months before the terminal’s building flush milestone. This proactive delivery gave the project team time to fully commission and test systems prior to tie-in, providing schedule certainty and reducing risks of delay to the larger terminal program. Careful preplanning and resource management—including selectively subcontracting work to other contractors—ensured the team could carefully oversee execution and maintain momentum throughout.

Operations remained seamless during construction. With phased execution and short, overnight shutdowns, the CUP stayed online without major periods of downtime, ensuring uninterrupted service to passengers and terminal facilities. This continuity of operations highlighted the project team’s ability to balance progress with the airport’s commitment to customer experience.

The modernized CUP now delivers 5,000 tons of cooling and 26 MMBH of heating capacity, supported by high-efficiency equipment, heat recovery, and advanced control systems. By renovating the existing facility rather than constructing a second plant, the airport streamlined future operations, reduced staffing requirements, and secured reliable infrastructure to support long-term growth.

The CUP upgrade is one piece of a larger transformation. The overall project is being delivered in two phases. Phase 1A, now complete, opened a new terminal with 19 gates currently in use by passengers. Phase 1B has begun and will involve demolishing the former Terminal 1 and constructing the next section of the terminal in its place.

Once finished, Terminals 1 and 2 will be connected post-security, enabling travelers to move seamlessly between flights without exiting and re-entering security screening. The project is scheduled for completion in 2027.