BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
A project intended to reduce
the flow of trucks to and from
LaGuardia Airport by recycling
construction debris into new
building material has spared
streets and highways a total of
250,000 truck miles, the equivalent
of 10 trips around the world,
according to the Port Authority.
In an effort to reduce the impact
of LaGuardia Airport’s $8
billion redevelopment construction
on the airport’s neighboring
communities in Queens, the
Port Authority enlisted the La-
Guardia Gateway Partners,
which is comprised of several
infrastructure and management
companies including
Skanska-Walsh as the design
build joint venture, to lead the
program in 2017.
“The Port Authority has
made sustainability a core priority
and taken aggressive steps
to reduce its environmental
impact across the region, especially
on our neighboring communities
in Queens,” said Rick
Cotton, executive director of the
Port Authority of NY and NJ.
“Reducing truck travel on local
streets by recycling thousands
of tons of concrete construction
debris is just one example
of our commitment to lowering
the carbon footprint at the new
LaGuardia Airport.”
The program consists of
crushing and recycling concrete
from airport demolition in
a portion of the Elmjack Little
League Fields, located at 78-1
19th Rd. in East Elmhurst. That
land, located west of the airport
across Bowery Bay, is technically
part of LaGuardia Airport
and is under long term lease
from New York City by the Port
Authority.
The trucks carrying concrete
from airport demolition
projects travel directly to the
crushing facility, near 19th Avenue,
without leaving airport
property.
Therefore, the temporary facility
has reduced the distance
traveled by trucks by more than
250,000 miles, according to the
Port Authority. A round trip for
a truck to and from the crushing
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.22 COM | MARCH 13-MARCH 19, 2020
site is four miles or less.
Instead of trucking in new
material from a quarry 30 miles
away in Nyack or disposing
of the concrete in Westbury,
the concrete is crushed and recycled
into aggregate for reuse
in LaGuardia’s construction
projects as backfill or for the
sub-base for new construction.
The recycling project reduces
traffic and pollution that
otherwise would have resulted
from trucking demolition debris
off site and trucking new
material to the airport across
local streets and highways, according
to Port Authority.
Without the recycling project,
the Port Authority says the
trucks would have used 94th
Street and Astoria Boulevard
on the way to either the Long
Island Expressway or to the
Robert F. Kennedy Bridge.
Although the project temporarily
took away one of Elmjack
Little League’s ball fields, it still
allows them to use the rest of
the site for their games. In 2017,
Skanska USA and Skanska-
Walsh provided Elmjack Little
An image of LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal B once it’s complete
around mid year 2020. Photo courtesy of Port Authority
League Fields with $1.8 million
to repair and improve their
fields.
“As the first transportation
agency to embrace the Paris
Climate Agreement, the Port
Authority’s commitment to environmentally
conscious construction
was recognized last
year when the new Terminal B
at LaGuardia received the Envision
Platinum Award from
the Institute for Sustainable
Growth, a not-for-profit group
that develops and maintains
sustainability ratings for all civil
infrastructure,” Cotton said.
Thomas Nilsson, a Skanska
USA vice president and lead executive
for the Skanska-Walsh
construction joint venture, said
their company strives to ensure
that their projects have positive
impacts on local communities.
“Skanska builds for a better
society, and as such we strive to
ensure that our projects have
positive impacts on local communities,
LaGuardia is no exception,”
Nilsson said. “We are
always looking for opportunities
to partner with the Queens
community, whether that’s investing
in the future of Elmjack
Little League, developing new
and sustainable approaches to
our work, or providing STEM
learning opportunities for the
next generation of aspiring engineers.
One of Skanska’s U.S.
headquarters is less than a mile
away from Elmjack’s fields and
we look forward to cheering
them on for seasons to come.”
Concrete recycling project helped
spare in truck mileage, PA says
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