Oregon’s Portland International Airport (PDX) celebrated the grand opening of its new quick turnaround (QTA) facility Tuesday. The facility is a $67 million project sponsored by the Port of Portland.

The 316,000-square-foot QTA has the capacity to store 840 vehicles on its second-floor deck, and comes with 16 car wash bays and 72 fueling stations.

The previous QTA was built in 1989 by the rental car industry and featured five car washing spaces and 24 fueling spaces, according to Shane Andreason, senior manager for Concessions Development. The new QTA is about three times the size of the previous facility, and at peak shifts can hold 220 rental car employees working to clean and fuel 430 cars per hour.

Due to Oregon’s frequent rain, airport officials designed the QTA to collect and harvest rainwater for its car wash operations. It’s estimated the facility will capture more than 2 million gallons of harvested rainwater, allowing the QTA’s car washes to operate without the use of any municipal water.

“The rainwater is significant,” says Kama Simonds, media relations manager for the airport. “[In] Portland, there can be no shortage of rain…”

Furthering its sustainability efforts, LED lighting is used throughout the building. Additionally, an adaptive monitoring system is installed to help manage and monitor energy usage based on the time of day and time of year.

Airport officials hope to have the QTA certified under the Envision rating system, a program that recognizes sustainable designs for infrastructure projects, construction, and operation. If certified, the building will become the largest Envision-certified project in Oregon.

The project was completed under PDXNext, a collection of capital projects aimed at improving the airport for both passengers and employees. PDXNext projects, which are occurring now through 2025 and have a budget of $2 billion, focus on modernizing infrastructure to meet the growing needs of the airport.

Several projects under the group’s purview are in the works, including a consolidated rental facility (CONRAC). The proposed CONRAC, budgeted at $268 million, is slated to open in 2021.

PDX’s Quick Turn Around Facility by the numbers:

• $67 million – total budget for the project, including enabling work

• 2.83 million – gallons of rainwater to be harvested annually from the top deck

• 316,000 – the size of the facility, in square feet, including the upper and lower levels

• 840 – vehicles can be stored on the second-floor deck

• 430 – cars can be fueled/cleaned per hour

• 220 – employees working in the building at peak shift

• 175 – vehicles can queue for fueling

• 72 – fueling positions

• 16 – individual car wash bays