RDU: International Hub of Activity

Archer-Western Progressing on $570 Million Raleigh Terminal.

By Bruce Buckley

The Raleigh-Durham International Airport’s Terminal C project is requiring international outreach, with key materials and systems hailing from the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and China.

The $570 million project in Morrisville, N.C., will replace the airport’s existing 330,000-sq-ft Terminal C with an updated 890,000-sq-ft facility that will position the airport for significant growth in the coming years. Bringing the new terminal together required the team to engineer first-of-its-kind structures and scour the world for the necessary materials.

“This is a project that required purchasing more things from around the world than I ever have before,” says Joe Thompson, senior project manager at Archer-Western Contractors of Atlanta. “The international trade really changes your ideas of lead times. It take a great deal of understanding and respect for the system.”

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Although it incorporates worldly materials, the project, which broke ground in April 2006, aims to honor and compliment its North Carolina surroundings when completed in 2010. The design by Fentress Bradburn Architects of Denver, features a sweeping curved roof that plays off the rolling Carolina piedmont, and is dissected by a signature mast that extends above the main entrance.

The interiors include a mix of natural materials that reflect the region’s long history of craftsmanship, while flooring and decorative elements will reference the region’s emerging base of high-tech industries and educational facilities.

“We wanted this to be a landmark of sorts,” says Mindy Hamlin, spokesperson for Raleigh-Durham Airport. “This will be the first thing a lot of people will see when they come to the area.”

Although aesthetics are important, the project is also aiming to address the airport’s long-standing programmatic demands. This terminal is the latest product of approximately 25 years of planning by the airport to address capacity issues. It replaces the old Terminal C, previously built by American Airlines and used strictly as a facility for connecting flights.

The new design was hatched to attract multiple air carriers and better accommodate origination and destination traffic. When complete, it will be home to 32 gates, including three that accommodate wide-body jets, and will be able to service up to 12 million passengers annually.

The design shuns typical linear rows of ticketing counters in favor of ticket islands that contribute to an open feel.

“The island design has been around overseas, but it’s fairly unique in the U.S.,” says Tom Theobald, associate principal at Fentress Bradburn. “It will give people a better sense of wayfinding through the concourse. They can look beyond the ticketing islands and see where they need to go next.”

It will also help keep the space flexible as air carriers come and go and demands change over the years.

“The (new) ticket counters are much more modular so if something changes, there’s more space around them to accommodate those changes,” Theobald adds.

As a result, drops through the floor for baggage conveyors are spread throughout the space instead of along the walls.

In order to minimize impact on passengers and staff, the northern half of Terminal C was scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt first, and it will be completed in summer 2008. Demo and replacement of the southern half will then begin, with completion in 2010.

As plans for the steel structure building began to unfold, concerns about material costs, such as steel, became a concern. In a feat of value engineering, the team devised a one-of-a-kind truss system. The wood-laminated arched truss system features 117 beams that span 164 ft from end to end and range from 36 in. deep in the concourse to 54 in. deep in the terminal.

Materials from five countries were used to create the system. Each truss uses wood from British Columbia and steel from Montreal. The steel cables are manufactured in the United Kingdom, spun in Germany and use fittings made in China.

Because the system had never been applied for such a large use, test pieces were built and sent to the engineering laboratories at North Carolina State University. Tests showed the models were able to handle more than three times the design load.

In addition to the weight of the beam, the system also had to handle a heavy cabling system. Although the trusses didn’t require them, large-diameter cables were specified by design to better compliment the look of the trusses. Cables range from 3.5 in. to 5 in. in diameter, and it took four men to turn the wrench on the turnbuckle.

Two large beds were built onsite for assembling the trusses. As the team worked through the assembly process, the first trusses took nine days to build. By the end, teams could assemble two trusses every three days on average. Once the trusses were built on their sides, they were rotated and picked by a crane.

The trusses were placed with the ends sitting in a steel fork and connected with German Bertsche Systems steel pin connectors, the first use of those connectors on a major U.S. commercial project. There was only 1 in. of tolerance in either direction on each truss, and all of the trusses in the first phase fit once placed.

With truss work completed this summer, crews have moved on to the stainless steel roof. Each panel is formed and curved onsite with the longest continuous panel spanning 400 ft. Exterior siding work is also under way with curtain wall composed of unitized glass panels fabricated in China.

“There are a lot of first involved in this project,” Archer-Western’s Thompson says. “We spent a lot of time in preplanning to make this happen, and even though it looked great on paper, it’s been amazing to see it become a reality.”

Key Facts:

Location: Morrisville, N.C.
Contractor: Archer-Western Contractors, Atlanta
Owner: Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority
Architect: Fentress Bradburn Architects, Denver
Start Date: April 2006
Completion Date: Summer 2008 (first phase); 2010 (final phase)