Surrounded by clear lakes, abundant orchards and award-winning wineries, Kelowna International Airport (YLW) is a critical transportation hub, supporting tourism, economic growth and an expanding network of national and international connections in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley. 

As passenger volumes continued to climb to record levels year after year, the airport faced a pressing need to modernize and expand its terminal facilities while maintaining uninterrupted operations. 

To meet this demand, YLW launched the largest infrastructure project in its history, focused on increasing capacity, expanding security screening areas and making it easier for passengers to navigate the terminal. 

The City of Kelowna, which owns and operates YLW, selected PCL Construction as construction manager (CM) for its expertise in complex aviation infrastructure, experience delivering more than 500 aviation projects across North America, use of advanced technology, lean project delivery methods and PCL’s client-focused and collaborative approach to preconstruction services. 

When clients partner with PCL to deliver aviation infrastructure, they gain access to a deep, company-wide network of subject matter experts who bring specialized experience, technical rigor, unique perspectives and insights drawn from a wide range of complex construction projects. 

Rooted in a culture of continuous improvement, PCL‘s experts share lessons learned and best practices across districts, ensuring every team is equipped with the most current insights, tools and strategies. This collaborative model allows challenges overcome on one project to become opportunities on the next project. 

A clear example at YLW is PCL’s approach to moisture management for its mass timber elements. A defining feature of the expansion, the contemporary architectural design incorporates 4,500 square meters of exposed mass timber sourced from British Columbia to reflect the region’s natural character and the airport’s commitment to sustainability. 

Drawing on experience from previous mass timber projects, including the award-winning Limberlost Place, the YLW team employed advanced 3D modeling, detailed moisture management plans and sequencing strategies to reduce installation risk during the wet winter months. 

Those techniques — ranging from clash detection through live model access for consultants, to the prefabrication strategies — were then shared with PCL teams delivering similar projects in other regions. 

Having worked with mass timber previously, Project Superintendent Dave Crowe was confident in partnering with mass timber manufacturer Kalesnikoff to prefabricate the cross-laminated timber (CLT) and glue-laminated (Glulam) cassette panels in their facility, then deliver them to site. 

“We craned in 44 primary beams and 177 cassettes weighing between 4,200 pounds and 6,000 pounds (two to three tons) each,” says Crowe. “We ensured they came to us wrapped, then we landed them in place, with temporary protection and an air vapor barrier already on top, and then we sealed up the joints. It was a big win to provide that level of efficiency and protection to this architectural highlight.” 

The results speak for themselves: minimal rework, protected surfaces, and accelerated schedules. PCL Project Manager Bill Browne says the team’s success with mass timber at YLW is, in turn, being shared beyond PCL’s internal network.  

“We heard from contacts in the design community that our project is being used as an example of best practices on how you should approach moisture management with mass timber,” says Browne. “That’s a point of pride for our team and a strong indication of the quality of work we delivered at YLW.”

Modern aviation projects demand precision, speed, and coordination across multiple disciplines, requiring a CM that can work seamlessly with partners to deliver increasingly complex designs. 

At YLW, the deceptively simple waffle design of the mass timber roof concealed layers of potential complexity integrating electrical, stormwater, HVAC and fire-protection lines through engineered pathways within the columns. 

Internally, the YLW team engaged PCL’s advanced Integrated Construction Services (ICS) team of experts, a group dedicated to ensuring project teams deliver consistent, safe and successful results. In particular, the team relied on ICS for virtual design and building information modeling (BIM) to provide detailed visuals of the mass timber structures. Using tools like Revizto to centralize 2D, 3D and BIM data into a single interactive platform, the team provided field staff with real-time coordination and clash detection management to address constructability challenges before they emerged on-site. 

“That’s the value of our internal expertise. Those exacting details allow us to feather these fire protection lines through a knuckle at the top of a structural steel column that’s coming in from a piece of mass timber,” adds Browne. “It takes the right mix of people, process and technology to move a project like this from concept to construction successfully.” 

When the team discovered a deeply buried artesian well at the planned location for the geo-exchange field — a high-efficiency underground heating and cooling system — it turned a potential roadblock into an opportunity to improve the design. It provided an opportunity to re-evaluate the location. The geo-exchange field was ultimately relocated away from the terminal to beneath an adjacent parking lot.

Working collaboratively with the client, designers and subcontractors, the team re-engineered the system to be shallower and broader, while developing a phased construction plan to minimize parking impacts. The change also allowed the team to remove the geo-exchange system from the project’s critical path.  

 “This was one of those moments where collaboration and innovative solution provider thinking added real value,” says Browne. "By relocating the system, we didn’t have to work the geothermal field into the sequence of the foundations. We avoided significant delays, reduced risk and ultimately saved time on the schedule.”

Challenging ground conditions added further complexity. Poor soil quality and a high water table required advanced ground improvement solutions. Through preconstruction, the PCL team rigorously managed costs and looked for efficiencies through value engineering, including the use of Controlled Modulus Columns (CMCs) instead of soil preloading, to manage potential settlement between the existing terminal and the new structure. 

Unlike soil preloading, which can add months to a schedule, CMCs provide settlement control almost immediately. This allowed the team to begin foundation work shortly after installation, helping to keep critical path activities on schedule. Because CMCs provide more predictable settlement control, the team could model the impact in advance rather than having to account for variable soil drainage conditions during soil preloading.  

The solution reduced the schedule by several months and delivered about one million dollars in savings for the client.

YLW has committed to achieving carbon-neutral building operations by 2030 and net-zero airport operations by 2040. To support those goals, the project integrates geo-exchange and thermal recovery heat pumps for low-carbon heating and uses mass-timber construction to reduce the building’s overall carbon footprint compared to traditional construction materials. 

Despite complex challenges and the requirement to maintain uninterrupted airport operations throughout construction, the team completed the terminal expansion ahead of schedule in early 2026.

The project demonstrates how PCL’s subject matter experts, collaborative delivery approach and technical precision help aviation clients like YLW meet today’s demands while preparing for long-term growth.