New Thruway service area buildings include green features

The new buildings at 23 of the New York State Thruway’s 27 travel plazas are more than just home to new partner restaurants like Popeye’s and Starbucks. The buildings are also made of a polymer cement developed by a Canadian company that not only makes the buildings faster to build — it makes them greener.

Announced in 2018, work on the service areas began in July 2021. The $450 million project with Empire State Thruway Partners is funded through a public-private partnership. Along with planning different-sized service areas, the state included several environmental initiatives including LEED Silver rating principles, solar arrays integrated into roofing systems, rainwater harvesting, and irrigation-free landscaping.

However, the core of the green efficiencies at the 23 new buildings comes from the building itself, says Dave Perez, senior VP of business development with Nexii, the Vancouver, British Columbia–based company constructing them.

Nexii uses a polymer cement to produce a building envelope — in the form of panels that are installed and connected on site — in a manufacturing setting in Pennsylvania, he says. This process nearly eliminates construction waste, the first big environmental improvement, he adds. Nexii produces the panels which are erected by another company on site, “They do go up a lot faster than a traditional building,” Perez says.

The company’s panel system also makes it easier to adapt to the different building sizes — which range from 6,400-14,800 square feet — planned for each Thruway service area.

On top of that, the panels are well insulated, contact 63 percent less “embodied” carbon than precast concrete, and don’t contain “red list” materials, which are regulated materials that may pose a risk to human health. Nexii’s panel design uses about 60 less water during manufacturing than a concrete tilt-up envelope equivalent. The buildings use about 33 percent less energy overall and about half the heating energy of a standard building.

“It’s a 100-year expected life span, and everything in it is recyclable or reusable,” Perez notes.

So far, 10 Nexii-produced buildings are complete and open at four Thruway travel plazas — Indian Castle in Herkimer County, Chittenango in Madison County, Junius Ponds in Seneca County, and Iroquois in Herkimer County — as part of the first phase of the project. This phase also includes the Ardsley, Clarence, Plattekill, Clifton Springs, New Baltimore, Pembroke, Seneca, Oneida, Pattersonville, Sloatsburg, Scottsville, and Ulster travel plazas. These are Nexii’s first buildings erected in the United States.

Nexii will produce 13 more buildings for the Schuyler, Ontario, Malden, Guilderland, Port Byron, Warners, Ramapo, Angola, Dewitt, Mohawk, and Modena Thruway service areas.

“You will start to see buildings up as early as April,” Perez says. The second phase will take 12 to 14 months to complete.

The service areas are utilized by the about 250 million vehicles that travel on the Thruway each year. Service areas are open 24 hours a day, offering food and retail options along with restroom facilities and fueling for both passenger and commercial vehicles. As part of the upgrade, electric-vehicle charging stations will be installed at all 27 service areas.

Founded by Michael and Ben Dombowsky, Nexii uses Ben’s invention of Nexiite cement alternative to produce its lightweight, low carbon, fire- and water-resistant panels. Headquartered in Vancouver, the company’s completed projects include a Courtyard by Marriott hotel, Starbucks, and Scotiabank in Canada.