Construction Mitigation

OAK is a popular, alternative airport for commercial, corporate and general aviation activities and air cargo operations in the San Francisco Bay Area. Serving nearly 14.5 million passengers and handling nearly 700,000 metric tons of air cargo and 350,000 operations annually takes its toll on OAK's existing facilities. Construction to maintain and upgrade existing facilities and pavement, or to build new facilities generate a certain amount of construction debris. OAK has implemented several programs to address this issue.

Materials Management

Established in 2004, the airport's Materials Management Program (MMP) diverts from public landfills recyclable construction materials such as concrete, asphalt and rebar from this and other Port projects, and converts it into reusable material for new airport construction and maintenance projects. The MMP has designated three on-airport sites for material stockpiling and recycling, allowing for the reduction of disposal and material purchasing costs and reduction of truck emissions associated with landfill disposal of waste.

It is estimated that over the next five years, the MMP will recycle and reuse over 500,000 cubic yards of construction materials and will save $5 million.

Construction Mitigation

A major component of project-level environmental mitigation measures are those related to construction projects.  As such, the Airport has developed a construction site inspection checklist and field-monitoring follow-up to ensure contractor compliance with those measures identified in final plans and specifications.  The field visits and checklists assist the Airport staff in:

• monitoring and tracking compliance with mitigation measures identified in the EIR;
• enforcing compliance;
• assessing and tracking the effectiveness of applicable measures;
• identifying mitigation measures that may require revision;
• making recommendations for corrective action; and
• maintaining clear communications among all responsible parties.