ENR Mountain States 2015 Owner of the Year: SLCDA
In recent years, large-scale highway and commuter-rail projects have dominated the transportation landscape in Utah, but last summer, after many years of what might be called a long-delayed takeoff, the Salt Lake City Dept. of Airports (SLCDA) broke ground on the largest project in its history—a $1.8-billion complete replacement of the Salt Lake City International Airport Terminal.
"We estimate this project will create 24,000 jobs and pour $3.3 billion worth of value into the state's economy," says Natalie Gochnour, a member of the airport's advisory board and the associate dean of the David Eccles College of Business at the University of Utah.
For its leadership in undertaking a project of this size and scope, and managing its progress, ENR Mountain States has named SLCDA the 2015 Intermountain Owner of the Year.
"This project has been thought about and developed probably since the early 1990s," says Maureen Riley, executive director for the SLCDA. "We've been close to proceeding before, and it was always halted. But this time everything was in order to go ahead."
As a division of Salt Lake City Corp., the SLCDA operates with an executive director and a nine-member advisory board appointed by the Salt Lake City mayor and approved by the city council. The board oversees operations at airports across the Salt Lake Valley—from the South Valley airport in West Jordan, about 14 miles south and west of Salt Lake City, to the Tooele Valley Airport, 32 miles from the capital city.
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLCIA), five miles west of downtown, is the largest airport in the state, hosting eight airlines and serving as a regional hub for Delta Airlines. SLCIA handled more than 20 million travelers last year and around 900 airline arrivals and departures daily, making it the 27th busiest airport in the country, according to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation. Like other U.S. airport authorities, the SLCDA receives no tax revenue from the city. It is funded through fees paid by the airlines that use the facility—fees on tickets and rent paid by vendors, including rental car agencies—as well as federal grants. According to Riley, the department has been debt free for the past several years, allowing it to build cash reserves for the terminal redevelopment program (TRP).
"We will also issue airport revenue bonds that we'll pay back from future airport revenues," Riley says.
Massive Undertaking
Last summer, a groundbreaking ceremony was held on the new terminal site, only a few hundred feet south and west of the current terminal. Flanked by officials from Delta Airlines and airport board members, Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker praised the planning of the project and said it is an indicator of the city's rising profile in the Intermountain region.
"This will all be accomplished without additional expense to taxpayers," said Becker. "The project certainly reflects our status as an ever-growing crossroads and a regional leader."
Gochnour says the timing was finally right for the TRP. "This has been anticipated by the community for many years. While it has taken time to get it started, there has been an extraordinary amount of planning and careful study," she says. "With a strong economy in Utah, it feels like the perfect time to invest in transportation infrastructure."
The new terminal, parking structure and physical plant will be built in phases to replace the current terminal. It is a collection of nearly 29 buildings, some nearly 60 years old, that have been connected, renovated and altered over the years. The new terminal should be completed and ready for use by 2018, with complete build-out scheduled for 2023.
San Francisco-based HOK Architecture is the lead design firm for the 1.7-million-sq-ft project. HOK has collaborated with numerous Salt Lake City architects in developing the final design for the facility, which will seek LEED Gold certification. In November 2013, the joint venture team of Atlanta-based Holder Construction and Big-D Construction of Salt Lake City (now known as HDJV) was selected as the contracting team, with Atlanta-based Making Projects Work serving as program director and the owner's representative in a fast-track, construction manager at-risk contract.
Delayed Takeoff
Beginning in the early 1990s, it was apparent to city officials that the airport needed major changes to keep it operating efficiently into the future. Leaders eyed 2001 to start the planning process, but the 9/11 attacks forced changes in airport design. By then, the focus had shifted solely to preparations for hosting the 2002 Winter Olympics.
After the Olympics, the issue of the airport's future surfaced again, but plans were put on hold once more when its key client, Delta Airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2005 and spent the next two years reorganizing and fending off takeovers.
In 2008, with Delta out of bankruptcy and on firmer footing, SLCIA and Delta officials worked with HOK to analyze what the new facility should be.
"One of the main drivers of the TRP is that the current buildings are not seismically sound," says Riley. "As we've gotten a better picture of the geology of the area, we [found that] the airport is in a liquefaction zone. We looked at retrofitting the buildings we have or building new ones and decided it was best to build a new facility."
Making It Work
After officials decided to build a new terminal, HOK started work on the design. The results of a 2013 survey of Salt Lake City residents and travelers showed that, along with making the facility easier to navigate and improving access to technology, people sought to increase the visibility of the Utah landscape and incorporate it into the design.
"Airports around the world are interested in making sure their facilities reflect a sense of place," says Robert Chicas, firm-wide director of aviation and transportation for HOK. "The difference here is a very unique setting between the mountain ranges. The geography and colors in Utah change dramatically seasonally and geographically, and we've tried to reflect that in the colors and textures and in incorporating views to the outside. We've tried to place large, expansive windows not only to showcase the landscape, but also to leverage it as a way to orient passengers in the airport."
The new terminal will be three levels, with a 3,600-space, five-story parking terrace attached by walkways to the center floor. Cars will access the terminal on the upper and lower levels to drop off or pick up passengers. The recently completed Airport Line of the TRAX light rail system will also connect directly to the terminal.
The terminal design conforms to the existing airside aprons, taxiways and runways. Those will not be changed, but roads on the terminal's landside will undergo multiple changes as construction progresses.
The project team says that building the new terminal so close to the existing facility, without causing major disruptions to the traveling public, is a tall order. "We're going to be building temporary roads, then we'll have to move them as work progresses. We have to get out of our own way, basically," says Mike Williams, program director and owner's representative for Making Projects Work.
Kevin Fauvell, project director for HDJV, also worked for Holder Construction on the Hartsfield-Jackson airport project in Atlanta. "Programmatically, this is similar to what we did in Atlanta, with separated roadways and a separate parking deck," says Fauvell. "But here we are building right on the front door of the existing airport, with the traffic and passenger flow. Phasing is going to be much more challenging."
The project also is being built on "difficult soils," says Leon Nelson of Big-D Construction and the construction director for HDJV.
A comprehensive study conducted for the airport by CH2M Hill revealed a high water table and clay soils at the site. Nelson says that making the new facility seismically stable will mean drilling 6,694 structural piles 70 ft deep, capped by 12,620 stone columns to support the building slab.
Fauvell says that the team holds regular meetings with airport officials to coordinate operations and ensure the safety of travelers. "We have a very collaborative environment here, and we all bring our best to this," he says. "The airport board and design firms have been engaged in all aspects of the project, and they will stay involved. As things progress, we'll be having more frequent logistics sessions, probably daily as we hit the peak building times in 2016 and 2017."
Chicas says he is confident designers have created a facility that will be representative of its place and safely serve the public well into the future. "This project will be a transformation for Salt Lake and the region and for Delta Airlines. Salt Lake can now lay claim to one of the premier airports of the 21st century," he says.
