The City of Chicago is making great strides towards its goal of becoming the greenest city in the United States. Chicago has led the way in North America in green roof implementation for the past decade. This is evident in many of the O’Hare Modernization Program projects including the FedEx Cargo Relocation Project.

Airports tend to utilize large areas of impermeable concrete surfaces and as a result, they need green solutions that combat urban heat island and help with stormwater management; green roofs are an ideal solution to these issues. The FedEx green roof is estimated to retain 2 million gallons of water annually and will add an additional 170,000+ sf of green space to the stark airport environment.

Intrinsic Landscaping worked with FedEx Corporate to develop a green roof system designed to discourage foreign object debris (FOD) into an active airspace. The assembly is also compliant with FM Global insurance requirements. Intrinsic completed the FedEx green roof project in 17 days. At 174,442 sf, the FedEx Cargo Relocation green roof at the Main Sort Building is the largest freestanding green roof in the Chicago metro area and the largest at an airport worldwide.

This project required utilization and coordination of an uplift-resistant and rapidly executed green roof design due to the active runway status of the O’Hare facility. Over the last decade, Intrinsic has developed several innovative green roof construction techniques. The FedEx project was quite difficult with active airspace immediately adjacent to three sides of the building and active runways within 200 yards. With the limited access, Intrinsic utilized pneumatic blower trucks and as many as three different cranes.

There are more than 2,000 cubic yards of growing media and over 3 miles of edge restraint on the FedEx building. Xero Flor XF301 Vegetation Mats over the Green Roof Solutions Base Assembly was the choice for this important airport project.

See the Project Profiles for the 10,024 sf greenroof of the FedEx World Service Center & Administration Building and the 3,170 sf FedEx Vehicle Maintenance Building.