Airtight

McCarran Expands, Upgrades to Handle More Traffic

By Tony Illia

McCarran Airport saw a record 47.7 million passengers last year, but even more are expected because of the estimated 174,000 new hotel rooms in Las Vegas by 2010. To cope, a massive expansion is currently underway.

McCarran International Airport, the nation’s seventh busiest and one that handles 131,000 passengers a day, is undergoing a five-year, $3.8 billion capital improvement program.

McCarthy Building Cos. was the contractor on the Satellite D Gates expansion, which involves adding a nine-gate wing to the northwest side.

Photo courtesy McCarran Intl. Airport

And with the influx of new megaresorts on the Strip drawing in more and more visitors, the airport is bracing to be even busier in the future.

The 2,800-acre, four-runway airport is making a series of capacity and efficiency improvements. Projects will be self-financed from airport user and airline fees as well as slot machine and concession revenues.

San Francisco-based Bechtel Infra-structure Inc. is the program manager for all the airport’s projects.

Terminal 3

McCarran’s largest and most anticipated undertaking is a third terminal building north of the D Gates along Russell Road.

“Terminal 3 will bring the added facilities and space Clark County needs to host millions of additional air travelers who visit our community as well as service our growing local population,” says Rosemary Vassiliadis, deputy director of the Clark County Department of Aviation, which oversees McCarran. “It will complement what’s already in place.”

Russell Road underwent a $55 million realignment between Paradise Road and Eastern Avenue Street to make room for the addition, which was completed by contractor Las Vegas Paving Corp. last year.

The $1 billion, 14-gate Terminal 3 measures 300 ft wide by 2,300 ft long and will give McCarran 117 gates in total.

Terminal 3 will connect to the D Gates via a concrete reinforced underground tunnel for an Automated Transit System. Houston-based PGAL is the architect with Walter P Moore, also of Houston, as structural engineer.

The three-level, 1.8-million-sq-ft terminal will have its own security checkpoints, baggage claim, retail concessions, parking and ticketing. Las Vegas-based PENTA Building Group Inc. is building the terminal’s central plant.

Terminal 3 bid in June and is scheduled to open in 2011.

Terminal 3 Infrastructure

Future plans call for McCarran to become a commuter airport, with a brand new $4 billion facility, Ivanpah Airport, handling long distance and international routes by 2017.

Rendering courtesy NASA Ames Simulation Laboratories

Before Terminal 3 can be built, civil-site upgrades must be completed. McCarthy Building Cos., St. Louis, is the general contractor on the $153.7 million project, which calls for construction of a 2,300-ft-long, 15-ft-high, 15-ft-deep underground utility corridor, plus an ATS tunnel extension and mechanically stabilized earth retaining walls.
 
Designed by PGAL, the job entails foundation work that includes 1,260 drilled piers up to 6 ft in diameter and 70 ft deep, with 350 anchor bolt assemblies that will serve as connection points for the terminal’s future vertical steel.

The undertaking, which is currently on schedule, will be finished by next summer. “We’re placing all the foundation for Terminal 3, and getting it ready for steel erection,” says Ray Sedey, McCarthy’s project director. “The project’s underground system will be waterproof.”

Roadways, Runways

The new terminal building means reconfiguring the airport’s runways and taxiways. Las Vegas Paving is performing a $61.8 million reconstruction of Runway 7R/25L, Taxiway A and portions of multiple cross taxiways. The work entails concrete paving, lighting, signs and duct banks for fiber optics and electricity.

Las Vegas Paving is additionally doing the $120 million Terminal 3 roadways package. Designed by Las Vegas-based G.C. Wallace Inc., the project entails constructing the terminal’s access and recirculation roads, including elevated portions with 21 bridges and embankments.

The project scope includes storm drainage, water distribution and sewer systems, plus terminal at-grade parking and staging areas as well as drainage facilities for collection and conveyance of storm flows.

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Air Cargo Center

McCarran must move its current air cargo operations center to make way for Terminal 3. Las Vegas-based Marnell Properties has been tapped to build a 200,900-sq-ft replacement complex at Russell Road and Spencer Street.

Marnell Properties was selected through a request-for-solicitation process to develop the site under a public-private joint-venture, says Brad Schnepf, Marnell’s president. His firm and the airport will split the project’s revenue.

Marnell Air Cargo Center calls for a 79,000-sq-ft FedEx building and a 121,900-sq-ft multitenant structure serving 15 air carriers, including United Parcel Service, DHL and Delta.

Situated on 20 acres, the project’s dual concrete tilt-wall buildings will store ground support equipment and sorting machinery.

Although Marnell Air Cargo Center won’t add any additional capacity, it should improve circulation and operational efficiency through better design and improved technology, Schnepf says. 

Designed by Marnell Architecture, the project is scheduled to break ground in the fourth quarter with completion in early 2010. Construction costs are still undetermined. A contractor has yet to be named.

Demolition of the existing structures and move-ins are expected to occur in phases.

Marnell Air Cargo Center is expected to command between $15 to $18 per sq ft in rent or roughly $3 million to $3.6 million a year under full occupancy.

D-Gates

McCarthy is finishing work on a $109 million, 128,000-sq-ft expansion of McCarran’s Satellite D Gates. The nine-gate northwest wing addition, designed by Henderson, Nev.-based Tate Snyder Kimsey Architects, will consist of a two-story, steel-framed structure set atop spread footings.

“There are some restrictive work hours but the job generally requires a lot of coordination between the subs, the owner, the construction manager and tenants,” says Randy Highland, McCarthy’s Nevada division president. “We are working around takeoffs and landings, which entails some security restrictions.”

The 500-ft-long, fan-shaped building has a combination glass curtain wall façade with sunshade louvers and aluminum and zinc metal paneling.

The expansion will finish in September, giving the satellite terminal a total of 44 gates.

Ivanpah Airport

McCarran is also planning for the future, with a completely new airport 40 mi southwest of Las Vegas on a dry lakebed in the Ivanpah Valley.

A $14.2 million environmental impact statement for the new 6,000-acre airport complex is being prepared by Watertown, Mass.-based Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, which has to be submitted by 2010 for federal approval.

If cleared for takeoff, design will take three years followed by four years of construction. The county is considering alternative procurement methods such as design-build and construction manager at risk to fast-track construction, says Randy Walker, director of the Clark County Department of Aviation. San Francisco-based URS has been retained as the county’s aviation consultant.

“This will be the first new major airport in the country since Denver,” says Jonathan Feinstein, VHB senior vice president, whose firm won the contract as a result of a national, three-stage competition. “In addition to the airport there will be 14,000 acres of land for commercial and industrial development.”

The airport’s initial $4 billion phase will consist of a 14-gate terminal with two parallel runways for concurrent takeoff and landings, with 2,000 acres allocated for flood control. It’s expected to be operational by 2017, servicing six million passengers in its first year. McCarran will eventually shift its focus to short-commuter flights, with Ivanpah handling long-distance and international routes. It will be designed to accommodate the Airbus A-380, the largest passenger plane in production, which McCarran is not able to accommodate.

Upon build-out, it will service up to 35 million passengers annually.

McCarran could reach its 53 million passenger capacity between 2011 and 2014, well before the Ivanpah Airport is ready for takeoff.

Technology

McCarran is leveraging technology to improve efficiency. The facility uses common use terminal equipment at all of its gates, which allows the airport to move all 30 airlines from gate to gate seamlessly by managing all of the software on its own server as opposed to having 30 different IT data networks, says Chris Jones, airport spokesperson.

The technology enables better service of traffic ebbs and flows, maximizing use of all of its gates rather than letting one sit idle, he says.

To help process its average of 70,000 bags daily, McCarran began using radio frequency identification in 2005, with the final transition expected this summer. RFID has a 99.7% accuracy rate and can be read regardless of whether the tag is smudged, and that’s an improvement from the old system’s 90% accuracy rate, Jones says.

Useful Sources

To learn more about bidding on McCarran projects or to read their standards and specifications, visit www.mccarran.com/DoingBusiness/main.html.

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