With a budget topping $4 billion, the Los Angeles International Airport's multi-year modernization is among the largest public-works projects in the city's long history. The program's sheer size, its regional and national importance and the amount of work already completed contributed to the decision by ENR California to select Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), the municipal agency that oversees the massive construction drive, as Owner of the Year 2012.
The nearly 40,000 construction and non-construction jobs the LAX program has already created or is projected to produce, according to a Economic Development Corp. of Los Angeles County study, also influenced the selection. The EDC also predicts that the modernization will inject $6.89 billion into the region's construction, manufacturing, real estate, finance, insurance and retail industries.