For airports and airlines, maintaining a positive and consistent experience is crucial year-round, but especially when travel peaks around holidays and citywide events.
JE Dunn spoke with our aviation leaders from across the country to learn more about what made their airport projects successful, how they avoided disruptions to travelers during construction, and what they’re paying attention to for future passenger experience improvements.
Jon Mindrup, Design Management Director, Dallas
What challenges does building in or around an active airport pose for construction teams?
We have to keep in mind that where we work is an airport first, and a construction site second. On a typical project, a construction site is ours to control until we turn it over to the owner. In an airport that’s running 24/7, that’s rarely the case. The challenge for us is to be a good neighbor and partner of the airport while our project is under construction. We have to give a lot of thought to phasing of project activities so we don’t have too many areas blocked off or systems offline at any given time. We have to think not just about how this specific airport operates generally, but also what their peak operation times are and peak demands for things like security checkpoints, bathrooms, and parking. People tend to be stressed at airports, worrying about making their flights, so we also have to think about how we can do our work in a way that minimizes that stress by not creating more mess, noise, and interruptions.
What factors make successfully planning for and scheduling aviation construction possible?
It’s really three things: understanding the operational data, identifying who all your stakeholders are, and customizing your approach to the needs of your client. We have this saying that if you’ve worked at one airport, you’ve worked at one airport. They’re all different, and we want to ensure we are using our expertise to understand the specific needs of each project to come up with solutions that address their unique problems. There is no one-size-fits-all approach.
Nick Christoffersen, Vice President and Project Executive, Charlotte
What does a successful preconstruction phase look like when balancing passenger experience?
We hold what we call a VPC (value proposition canvas) meeting with the client and the design team to really get an understanding of what is valuable to them and what their must-haves are. For instance, our client in Norfolk, Virginia, wants to ensure the passenger experience there doesn’t get sidelined by active construction above any other priorities. So, if we have to build more temporary walls and paint them to match the existing space, we’re willing to do that. Being transparent with a client goes a long way to building a plan that fits their needs, whether it costs more or takes longer. Once we know what matters to the client, we can plan better to hit their off-peak seasons and meet their needs.
Tell me about an airport project where downtime was necessary. How did you plan for it?
When we built a new concourse for a client in Charlotte, North Carolina, at some point all the security systems, the card readers, and cameras, had to tie back to the main airport. So, to do that we needed to temporarily turn those devices off in order to tie the new devices into the existing system. Our teams had to trace these systems down to determine which devices and locations would be affected by the shutdown. When it came time to turn off and connect those systems, we had to deploy people to physically stand at those doors and guard them to maintain security. That’s somewhat of an extreme case, but we have to be very thoughtful about when shutdowns are necessary and how we will handle them so they aren’t planned during peak operations.
Cory Hammond, Project Manager 2, Denver
How do you prepare for airport blackout dates in the construction timeline?
As a builder, we have to ensure there is a strict understanding of our construction activities and communicating early with our client about them as we approach blackout dates. We’re obviously talking through schedule, but we’re also communicating about what impacts those scheduled items could have on all the other operations at the airport that play a role in a positive passenger experience.
For instance, in Houston we just completed a large duct bank for our electrical primary across the main feeder road to the airport. We had to go in and shut down half the lane, dig down, install our duct bank, and then flip to the other side of the road the next week. We coordinated that almost four months ahead of time, saying we needed to begin work October 1 to finish by November 1, which gave us a two-week buffer from our blackout date as Thanksgiving travel began.
What’s one thing you wish stakeholders or trade partners knew more about when it comes to aviation construction?
One thing that we push very heavily on every job, but especially with our teams and trade partners on airport construction projects, is controlling our materials and site cleanliness. Sometimes it’s making swaps during buyout for rope or chain because red caution tape could too easily blow away. FOD, or foreign object debris, is basically anything that can get onto air side and potentially impact operations or most importantly, human safety. While every airport is unique, all of our aviation clients need us to think very critically about how to minimize FOD to maintain everyone’s safety and smooth operations.
Sam StoneHyde, Project Manager 1, Minneapolis
Aviation clients sometimes want construction to be invisible. How do you plan for and execute construction that’s not seen or heard?
We know that construction is temporary, but passengers don’t necessarily experience it that way. In Minneapolis, our client called it “live construction,” which means that removing ceilings, installing new fixtures, painting and new millwork and such is all done in a live setting with passengers experiencing it around you.
The challenge is, we cannot shut down a gate hold for any amount of time. We also cannot impact concessions or fire emergency egresses as we installed new terrazzo flooring and completed other interior finishes. To do this, we had to do most of our work at night. We also had to phase our work and chop it up into small enough pieces that people could still, for example, enter and exit a restaurant with the fire marshal’s approval during the day while that portion of new terrazzo flooring cured for 48 hours.
It’s meticulous work, but it’s such an achievement. In two and a half years and across six concourses, we did not impact a gate. We never had a flight delayed because of our presence as the general contractor.
What’s your biggest lesson learned that you would encourage others to consider or incorporate into future aviation work?
Definitely have a swing shift crew to make communication more effective and efficient. You can have a dedicated night shift supervisor and daytime project managers, but you need a group of people on the ground for half the day that’s absorbing information from dayside and then transfers it to the night crew as soon as they get there.
Stacey Flint, Vice President and Project Executive, Portland
What do contractors need to successfully navigate and manage all the stakeholders involved in airport construction?
Having a contractor involved from the beginning is necessary to really plan appropriately for this kind of work. Utilizing the progressive design-build delivery method was absolutely necessary for our work in Portland, Oregon, because constructability and viability was front and center from the beginning. It’s incredibly important that we keep decisions moving on these projects, and with progressive design-build, we were able to incorporate client feedback into the design and any changes while we were in active construction. By getting stakeholder input and incorporating it into the design in a timely manner, we actually finished the project several months early.
What do you wish more clients or stakeholders knew about planning and scheduling for passenger experience?
At the most basic level, the first thing we think about as a contractor when it comes to passenger experience is: Don’t get in the way. What I would challenge our colleagues in construction and design industry to think about is: What more can we do to curate the passenger experience?
When working on Portland’s airport, we were able to help put together signage that was multi-lingual and had photos of our trade partners. We used the photos and project renderings on temporary partitions to make it part of the passenger experience and show our progress. It ensured that, if we did have to reroute passengers and make them walk a little farther, we told them why. To me, that’s one way we can work with clients to curate the passenger experience in tandem with the construction we’re doing rather than just staying out of the way.
Mike Hunter, Vice President and Project Executive, Phoenix
How can contractors partner with our clients to maintain a consistent, positive passenger experience?
Being involved early in the design process and working together is really key. A project doesn’t necessarily need to be design-build; it can be a construction manager at risk project. By working closely with the design team and the owner, general contractors can provide value early in the design process on how a project is phased and constructed to minimize the impact to the frontline customer experience and convenience.
What’s the hot topic or next big thing to consider when it comes to improving passenger experience?
Small electric aircraft or eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft are getting a lot of buzz in the marketplace. Airports want to provide a more convenient passenger experience to pick up passengers at smaller airports and transport them to larger regional hubs. The aviation industry as a whole is trying to absorb what that looks like and how it could be serviced. For passengers in areas like California, air travel to get from Napa to San Francisco would be much more convenient than driving, taking a cab, or riding public transportation in high traffic areas. It will take some time for people to feel safe getting into a battery-powered aircraft, but all the airports seem to be dipping their toes in it.
