Long-Term Planning

Washington Dulles Has Long-Term Plans to Invest $3.4 Billion in its Facilities

By Mary Beth Sammons

One of the busiest and fastest-growing airports in the country, Washington Dulles International Airport, has a major traffic problem.

And the problem isn't just in the skies. An unprecedented demand for air transportation has pushed the overcrowded airport to the brink of gridlock and created a major on-the-ground logistics

A new underground passenger walkway will keep people moving while in the terminal. (Photo by John Johnson)

"We're trying not to get caught in the tidal wave of growth, but our challenge is to forge ahead with the new construction and not allow any part of the airline traffic to slow down," said Frank Holly, vice president of engineering for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is overseeing the construction.

The long-term plans in the expansion project are part of a master plan that was launched in 2000. The plans to increase capacity include a fourth runway, thousands of parking spots, a pedestrian walkway between the terminal and a subway system to replace the existing mobile lounges. Most of the work is slated to be completed by 2012.

A new terminal is part of a longerterm plan, and a date for construction has not been set.

When Washington Dulles International Airport opened in 1962, it was the first U.S. airport built for commercial jet aircraft. Airline travelers were in a distinct minority.

Today, Dulles travelers are battling ever-worsening congestion from airport roads and parking lots to ticket counters, security check-ins and taxiways. And passenger rosters are expected to more than double in the next few years to 55 million, from the current 20 million travelers annually.

Because the capital program also calls for the $750 million construction of a new United Airlines midfield terminal, airport officials have had to keep construction plans flexible to accommodate the uncertain business fate of its dominant airline carrier, Holly said. United Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2002, leaving its financial future uncertain.

"The amount of meetings involved and strategy we needed to move this project ahead is staggering," he added.

Indeed, it is often difficult for airports and local communities and airlines to reach consensus on proposed airport expansion plans. And Dulles has been no exception. Complicated, conflicting and duplicative requirements have had to be forged through before construction could start, Holly said.

Moving People One of the major efforts already under way is the construction of a $200 million underground, 2-mi.-long, dual-lane Automated People Mover train system to connect the airport with its three existing concourses -and ultimately the fourth terminal.

The APM is being built in an attempt to reduce vehicular traffic on the airfield and reduce walking distances for travelers. Twenty-nine trains are slated to be running by late 2008, and a total of more than 40 when the new terminal is complete. (That date is not scheduled).

Construction traffic and security have to be controlled in the underground APM, which is located 60 ft. under the existing terminal and alongside an operating airfield. Also, the excavation had to be squeezed into a narrow space without interrupting operations, said Michael Huffstetler, construction manager for Parsons, which is serving as construction consultant and coordinator for the project.

The airport train system will replace the existing mobile lounges as the primary people-mover system at Dulles. During construction, the lounges are being used to serve aircraft that do not have access to gates and for unscheduled or emergency situations.

Also, most of the 19 mobile lounge docks and 30 plane mates, which are similar to lounges but can transport passengers from the terminals directly onto the aircraft, were relocated to beneath the air traffic control tower to clear the way for construction of an underground passenger walkway.

Maintaining Integrity Historic preservation and honoring the internationally renowned architecture are also important. The goal is to keep in place the architecture designed by Eero Saarinen, the internationally acclaimed architect who designed the airport's signature swooshed-roof main terminal. Saarinen said at the time that he created something more than just another airport - he wanted to find "the soul of the airport."

"The challenge is to recreate that luminous light look in an underground subway tunnel," said Richard Turner, chief architect for the airport authority and the project. To achieve that, designers created green field areas, used a soft color palette of gray and polished steel, and installed numerous skylights and metallic tiles to reflect light.

"The light system was purposefully designed to be intuitive for passengers, to move them in the right direction," Turner added. "The escalators move toward light, to move the people traffic in the right direction."

Security issues at the airport have been major from the beginning of the expansion project, Huffstetler said. The terror attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon in 2001 have caused a paradigm shift in the way airports must be planned, constructed and operated.

At Dulles, new, advanced security equipment is being installed and a new security mezzanine built to house and double the number of security checkpoint stations to 80, up from the existing 36. During construction, and until the mezzanine is complete, the security checkpoints had to be relocated from the east side of the main terminal to the
west, removing a waiting room and relocating some of the mobile lounge docks. To accommodate this and keep pedestrian traffic flowing, the planners created major informational enhancements including the installation of information kiosks.

The temporary baggage-handling facility was constructed on the west side of the main terminal, a task that took nine months and had to be completed under a rush deadline to accommodate the heavily traveled Memorial Day weekend in May. The crews used a design-build delivery system to complete this job before any airport construction could begin, Huffstetler said.

One of the chief problems at Dulles is parking lot overcrowding. Plans call for building an $18 million long-term lot. In addition, two garages are being built and are scheduled to open in front of the terminal in two years with 8,700 spots."

This required a lot of temporary roadwork to reroute traffic," Holly said.

It was imperative that the expansion project be completed without interruption to airport services, Holly added. To this end, one of the strategies was to employ design-build to accomplish construction and design goals in a timely fashion. Continuous adjustments to the plan were and are being made to ensure that both short- and long-term goals are achieved.

Individual projects - besides the baggage-handling facility - were identified as ppropriate for design-build, and they had to be completed before the main terminal expansion project could start.

Two design-build projects that drove this strategy included a 12,000-sq.-ft. airport commissary building, which was constructed to support the terminal expansion program. It removed the goods storage away from the terminal building and permitted the vacated space to be used during various phases of the expansion.

A 10,000-sq.-ft. baggage recheck facility was also constructed for international arrivals.

Return to List