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A recent view of the North Terminal project at Miami International Airport. (Photo by Aerial Photography Inc./www.api4.com)
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Despite considerable delays on some major components, progress is being made on multibillion expansions at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Miami International Airport.
Two of the busiest airports in the country - Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Miami International Airport - are continuing to progress through multibillion-dollar expansion and improvement programs.
Contractors have made great strides toward completing some projects at both facilities, but other jobs have run into considerable snags and a change in players, resulting in lawsuits and some bad feelings.
Following is a look at each of the two major aviation projects, the accomplishments to date at both, and the obstacles that remain ahead.
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson, the busiest airport in the country, is in the midst of a $6 billion capital improvement program to increase airside and landside capacity. This year, the airport expects to serve 83 million passengers. By 2010, it projects 120 million passengers will pass through annually.
During the first quarter of 2005, 28 percent of Atlanta's flights were delayed, and the average length of the delay increased from 52 minutes to 61 minutes, according to a Department of Transportation inspector general report. Delays at Atlanta affect other airports across the country and cost the airline industry about $5 million weekly, Hartsfield-Jackson officials stated.
To help meet the increase in passengers and reduce delays, the city of Atlanta-owned airport planned a 9,000-ft. Fifth Runway during the 1990s. After years of land acquisition, sitework, relocation of roads and utilities, culverts to route water and bringing in extensive fill dirt, runway 10-28 is approaching completion and scheduled to open in May.
"The new runway will cut the delay in half," said Dwight Pullen, director of the Fifth Runway project at Hartsfield-Jackson and an employee of program manager International Aviation Consultants, a division of Atlanta-based H.J. Russell & Co.
The Fifth Runway began with a $1.28 billion budget that included a $360 million excavation contract, $159 million runway bridge structure and $61.8 million paving contract. Pullen said that when the job is completed, it could come in $73 million under budget, primarily due to lower bids by contractors.
The new runway will span 10-lane Interstate 285 and is wide enough to eventually accommodate the interstate's expansion to 18 lanes. The 1,264-lin.-ft. runway bridge is the longest of its type in the world and will support more than 1.3 million lbs. of aircraft.
Archer Western Contractors Ltd. of Atlanta began work on the runway bridge in 2002 and is expected to complete it by February. The design called for cast-in-place walls and 764 T-shaped precast concrete beams, totaling 90,000 ft. in length and weighing between 135,000 to 190,000 lbs. each.
Archer Western also is building a 448-ft.-long, 75-ft.-wide taxiway bridge and a nonlicensed vehicle road bridge that allows maintenance crews access without interfering with aircraft traffic. The company self-performed about 55 percent of the construction work.
In June, Lane Construction Corp. of Meriden, Conn., began work on a $61.8 million concrete-paving contract to place more than 400,000 cu. yds. of 20-in.-thick pavement.
"They're moving fast," Pullen said. The contractor is scheduled to complete its paving work by March.
To provide air traffic controllers with a clear line of sight for the new runway, Hartsfield-Jackson required a taller air traffic control tower. Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Orlando is wrapping up construction on the $31 million, 398-ft.-tall concrete and steel tower, creating what will be the tallest air traffic control tower in North America.
Construction of the two-story, 31,154-sq.-ft. base building, 3,500-sq.-ft. engine generator building and tower is scheduled for completion by yearend.
Big Problem Once the tower is operational, the existing tower will be demolished to make way for a new international terminal. In 2004, Atlanta's international traffic was up 80 percent from eight years prior. The 1.2-million-sq.-ft. international terminal will primarily serve global travelers.
In February, the airport awarded a $746 million construction management-at-risk contract to a joint venture team of Holder Construction Co. of Atlanta, Manhattan Construction Co. of Dallas, C.D. Moody Construction of Atlanta and Hunt Construction Group of Indianapolis. At that time, the city anticipated occupying the new terminal by spring 2008.
But that was before the city's termination in August of a $34 million contract with Terminal Design Team, which had been responsible for designing the new structure. The team included Leo A. Daly Co. of Omaha, KHAFRA Engineering Consultants of Atlanta, Anthony C. Baker Architects & Planners PC of New York and Browder and LaGuizamon & Associates of Atlanta.
The city cited timing, design and cost issues. The construction manager had estimated the cost for building the TDT design at approximately $140 million more than the budgeted $688 million.
Engineering News-Record reported in August that TDT has sued the city for breach of contract, seeking $10 million for payments owed the team and $50 million for damage to its reputation.
The City of Atlanta Aviation Department plans to salvage what it can from the TDT designs and select a new firm. Airport officials would not comment on anything related to the international terminal, citing pending litigation.
Ben DeCosta, Hartsfield Manager told ENR in August that the city intends to move forward with a new design team as early as possible.
Other ATL Projects In April at the existing north terminal, Hartsfield-Jackson began the third and final phase of a TSA baggage screening project to move screening machines from its lobbies. Work on the $215 million security enhancement is expected to wrap up in mid-2006. Atlanta Gateway Design, Atlanta, is the construction manager. Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta, is the general contractor.
"The in-line baggage system required the demolition of curb-front roadways and construction of about 120,000 sq. ft. of underground rooms to house the screening equipment and conveyors," said Tom Nissalke, the airport's director of environmental and technical services.
Work will begin this fall on a $479 million, four-story, 9,000-car consolidated rental car facility, connected to the airport by a 1.5-mi.-long automated people mover and 0.5-mi.-long access roadway.
"We're going to locate this facility on the opposite side of the interstate from the airport, which will free up some valuable real estate," said Kathy Masters, the Department of Aviation representative on the project. "A major challenge will be putting the roadway and APM over an interstate, a major railroad line and our local MARTA, public transit."
Hartsfield-Jackson also plans a $481 million in improvements to the central passenger terminal, scheduled for completion in 2010.
Miami Miami International Airport's $5.2 billion capital improvement program was undertaken to handle increasing passenger and cargo traffic. Last year, the airport served 30.2 million passengers, 14 million on international flights.
Key elements include a new $700 million South Terminal, $1.5 billion North Terminal, $121 million Northside runway completed in 2003 and $60 million chiller plant, which is wrapping up now.
Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners approved a revalidated CIP in March 2002, with the new phase one affordability limit set at $4.8 billion. That figure is down from $5.4 billion, but future phase two components of the program will bring the total to an estimated $7.4 billion beyond 2015.
"A lot of our infrastructure, terminal and airfield, has been here a long time and needed to be upgraded," said John Cosper, deputy director of capital improvements for Miami-Dade Aviation.
Construction on the $700 million, 1.5 million-sq.-ft. South Terminal and Concourse J, which began in 2001, is scheduled to finish in mid-2006. A second phase to add a floor and change counter locations will begin when the first phase wraps up and will take about 18 months.
Phase one includes a four-story terminal with ticketing; baggage screening and claim areas; TSA, Department of Homeland Security and Customs facilities; a cruise-ship airport-seaport passenger processing facility; aprons and parking ramps for airplanes; the new curved, 450,000-sq.-ft., 15-gate Concourse J; and renovation of the existing domestic Concourse H for international flights.
A joint venture between Parsons Corp. of Pasadena, Calif., and Odebrecht Construction of Coral Gables, Fla., received a $658 million construction manager-at-risk contract for the project.
"It's been a very smooth, good relationship between the joint-venture partners," said Gilberto Neves, Odebrect Construction chief executive officer.
Jim Singer, senior vice president with Parsons, added: "Odebrecht is basically a construction manager, and we are primarily a program management company. We've been able to merge together and operate seamlessly."
Hensel Phelps received a $169 million multitrade contract to provide general construction services on the South Terminal and renovations to Concourse H. It also holds a $73 million contract for work on Concourse J. Both jobs began in April 2003.
Gilbert Southern Corp. of Peachtree, Ga., holds a $46 million utilities and pavement contract for the new concourse. Parsons-Odebrecht assigned the first phase of renovation of Concourse H to a complement of minority and small-business contractors.
The South terminal is 1,000 ft. long by 300 ft. wide, while Concourse J measures 900 ft. in length and 120 ft. wide. Both buildings sit on auger-cast piles with pile caps and grade beams. BCL Construction of Miami performed Concourse J foundation work and Hensel Phelps the terminal's foundation, as well as the bulk of the general contracting work at both Concourse J and the South Terminal.
Havens Steel Co. of Kansas City, Mo., fabricated and erected the structural steel. Havens completed about 80 percent of the work before filing for bankruptcy protection in March 2004 during the national steel-pricing crisis. The steel work is being completed in its entirety thereafter by Parsons-Odebrecht and Havens Surety.
"It was a big dilemma," Neves said. "The surety companies stepped in, and we stepped in ourselves."
Havens topped out in August 2004 and completed the work within budget and on schedule. More than 200 ironworkers placed 20,000 tons of steel, 45,000 steel pieces and nearly 2 million sq. ft. of metal deck.
The terminal exterior features a metal roof and a glass, aluminum, stainless steel and granite curtain-wall system that gives the building an open, airy feel. The system meets South Florida's tough hurricane standards.
Problem Terminal Miami-Dade initially anticipated completion of the 49-gate, 1.2-mi. long North Terminal in 2004, but the $1.5 billion project ran into problems. American Airlines, the main tenant, hired construction manager Turner-Austin Airport Team, a joint venture of Turner Construction Co. of Miami and Austin Commercial of Dallas.
Construction began in 2001 but ran into delays due to the complexity of the project and funding issues related to American Airlines, which experienced financial woes after the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly four years later, the terminal was still not finished, and the county stepped in.
"The county is now running the project," Cosper said. "The construction manager that American hired was terminated this summer. There has been some controversy and a lot of claims and cost overruns we are dealing with."
George Burgess, county manager for Miami-Dade, told ENR in September that American did not do a good job of doing their paperwork and paying their subcontractors and that a change in management should salvage the project.
In July, Miami-Dade Aviation awarded Parsons-Odebrecht a $542 million, four-year managing general contract to take over the North Terminal project. Cosper said he hopes the terminal will be ready in 2008. The four-year contract gives Parsons-Odebrecht until 2009.
The North Terminal includes a 3.4 million-sq.-ft. construction area with 10 projects designed by five different architects. A people-mover system will run along the roof of the terminal from one end to the other. About 1.6 million sq. ft. of the project involves remodeling and terminal improvements.
Moving forward, Neves and Singer anticipate challenges finding qualified workers and securing required materials. Recovery efforts along the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina will exacerbate existing shortages.
Despite the hard feelings some subcontractors may have regarding this problem project, Odebrecht's Neves said: "There will be a tremendous business opportunity for contractors at the North Terminal. We will need lots of trade and general contractors to accomplish the task."
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