UPS has announced the expansion of its building in San Antonio. The expanded ground sorting facility will be retrofitted with automated sorting systems and have twice the package processing capacity.

The additional capacity is necessitated by area business growth and increasing customer needs in south Texas, the company said.

The project will add capacity for more than 150 more delivery vehicles increasing the building’s delivery fleet to more than 340. UPS will also add 40 Class 8 compressed natural gas (CNG) tractors that will be fueled by a new on-site CNG fueling station. Each tractor will displace approximately 25,000 gallons of diesel fuel each year with clean burning natural gas.

“Population and business growth throughout Texas are driving demand for our services,” said Craig Wiltz, president of UPS’s Red River District. “This facility expansion exemplifies one aspect of our ongoing approach to meeting that demand.”

The building’s automated sorting systems are designed to move packages through the sort process capturing package data and routing volume to proper load positions. Six-sided decode tunnels will replace traditional scanning to capture package information from address labels. Label applicators will place smart labels on packages for local delivery, providing UPS loaders faster instruction of proper loading. This enhancement is part of UPS’s suite of package flow technologies.

The expansion will add about 171,000 square feet, bringing the building’s footprint to more than 330,000 square feet. The building sits on more than 40 acres of land and serves UPS customers in Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe, Wilson, Medina and Kendall counties.  The building’s team will continue to provide package pickup and delivery services during the project which is expected to be complete mid-2017.