Hangars, aircraft maintenance shops and the aprons that connect them have clear-span, door-height and floor-slope demands that ordinary warehouse crews have never had to solve. We build that kind of space at the edge of the West Mesa for owners who want to put aircraft, support equipment and light industrial operations on or beside Double Eagle II Airport. The airport sits at the top of Nine Mile Hill, about eight miles north of I-40, and the site conditions up there are different from anything near the river.
The ground is open, windy and cut by small arroyos that run only when it rains. A hangar door is a very large sail, so we design the door track, the wall framing and the anchor bolts at the foundation for gusts that would not worry a conventional building. A aircraft hangar also needs slab slopes that drain a washdown or a fuel spill to the right place, and we set those slopes before the first form goes up.
Most hangar projects here fit a pre-engineered metal building package, which delivers long clear spans at a sensible cost per square foot. When the program needs something beyond that, such as a heavier crane rail or a bigger maintenance bay, we move to structural steel and tell you why.
The airport is city-owned and has two runways: runway 4-22, at 7,398 by 100 feet with a full ILS, and runway 17-35, at 5,983 by 100 feet. Those dimensions mean aircraft ranging from light singles to business jets can operate here, and the buildings that serve them vary just as widely. We build individual box hangars, multi-bay hangars with shared fire-wall assemblies, maintenance shops with overhead cranes and the support buildings for fuel, ground equipment and storage.
On the ground side we pour reinforced concrete aprons and taxi connections with joint patterns that suit heavy aircraft wheel loads and the freeze and thaw swings of a high desert winter. We also run structural steel erection for the larger spans, and we coordinate the utilities that a hangar needs: power, water for fire protection, sanitary service and, where required, an oil-water separator.
Elevation and exposure define the work. Wind pushes sand and gravel across open ground, so we sequence dust control and keep haul routes watered while earthwork is moving. Soils on the mesa are dry and variable, and deeper footings are sometimes needed where a hangar door line puts concentrated load on a small area. We use geotechnical reports to set those depths, not assumptions.
Drainage is the other half. Storm water leaves the mesa quickly and ends up in channels downslope, so a detention basin on the site is more than a courtesy. If your parcel is closer to the interstate side of the mesa, the Westside Atrisco Vista employment zone shares much of the same terrain and some of the same permitting history.
The control tower operates from 6 am to 10 pm daily, and that schedule shapes our own. Cranes, boom lifts and tall equipment are coordinated with the airport operator, because anything that reaches into the approach or departure paths may need advance notice or a lowered boom. We brief every foreman on movement areas, hold lines and vehicle markings before the crew starts, and we keep construction vehicles out of any space the airport has not cleared.
Foreign object debris is a real concern at an airfield. We sweep haul roads, cover loads, fence the work area and clean tires before trucks reach any pavement used by aircraft. Hot work gets its own permit, and we hold fuel and chemical storage to the airport's own rules. The same discipline carries over to advanced manufacturing plants, where lockout and confined-space procedures are routine.
The airport's Master Plan Update held a public open house in July 2026 and closed comment on July 31, 2026, and an environmental assessment was prepared for its Access Road B project. We read items like that as a reminder to check what the airport plans before we promise a delivery date to an owner. Access routes, utility corridors and available parcels can change as plans move forward, so we confirm them with the operator at the start of design.
Once the plan is clear we schedule the building around four things: a geotechnical report, a metal building package with a long lead time, a concrete placement window that avoids high wind, and an airport inspection that may not match the usual city calendar. We buy the long-lead items early, and our long-lead procurement management keeps the steel package on track while the foundation work is under way.
A hangar is a commercial building under the 2021 New Mexico Commercial Building Code, which adopts the 2021 International Building Code as amended and took effect July 14, 2023. The airport's own LEED Gold airfield maintenance facility, completed in 2011, shows the operator has a record of building to a high standard, and we assume the airport expects careful documentation in a lease or permit review.
Beyond the building permit, a project here may need the operator's approval of site plans, a lease amendment and review of any construction that affects airfield operations. We walk those steps with you through our permitting and entitlements coordination, and we keep a log of every comment so a revision is answered once, not three times. The City Aviation Department also operates the Sunport, which makes the Sunport area a useful comparison when you weigh sites.
Tell us the aircraft, the span and the parcel. We will check the wind, drainage and airfield rules, then give you a budget range and a schedule you can use with the operator and your lender. You can also see how we handle heavy-haul access roads when the site is far from pavement.
In most cases yes. The clear span, eave height and door opening are set by your aircraft, and a metal building supplier can engineer the frame to match. We check the door header, track and the foundation for wind uplift before we order, and we move to a steel frame only if the program calls for more than the metal package can carry.
The tower operates from 6 am to 10 pm daily, so we plan crane picks, tall-equipment work and large deliveries for periods when we can coordinate with the airport. After hours work is possible on some tasks but requires the operator's agreement.
Storm water leaves the mesa quickly and can cut small arroyos into unprotected ground. We grade the pad so water leaves the hangar door line, size the detention basin to the paved apron and protect slopes with rock or vegetation as the plan allows.
We can organize the building side of it: plans, schedules, cost estimates and utility needs. The lease itself is between you and the operator, but a clear package helps those talks move faster.
We build the buildings and the site work around them, including shops, storage rooms and concrete pads. Fuel tank installation is a regulated scope, so we coordinate with the licensed specialist and the fire official early in design.
Tell us about the property, the building and the schedule.
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