Photo courtesy of SpawGlass Construction

Concern for public safety and a high level of communication between the construction team and the airport staff were priorities as the work was performed while the airport remained open for business.

Delivered by the Houston office of SpawGlass in August 2010, this $61-million project comprised interior and exterior renovations to Terminal C at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The Houston office of Parsons was the architect.

The SpawGlass scope included the building's MEP components; significant upgrades and relocation of select sections of the baggage handling system; major upgrades and replacement of the building's aging IT and communications backbone; and replacement of the passenger paging infrastructure throughout the airport.

Concern for public safety and a high level of communication between the construction team and the airport staff were priorities as the work was performed while the airport remained open for business. More than 2.5 million passengers moved safely through the jobsite during the two-year project.

"Our construction team had to always remain flexible with our work plans and be able to modify the nightly workloads and crews to accommodate, at a moment's notice, last-minute changes due to unforeseen airport modification of flight arrivals and departures or other airport needs," says Jerry Vandervoort, project executive for SpawGlass.

Throughout the 610 days and nights of construction, no flights were canceled, no airport operations disrupted, and no one missed a flight because of the renovation project—and there were no lost-time accidents.

One small component proved to be a large challenge—installation of the structural stair above an existing escalator core area, which had to remain open to allow passengers access to all terminal floors.

"The stair was too large to bring into the terminal, which meant it had to be assembled, erected and welded in place," Vandervoort says. To accomplish this, a scaffolding support system was erected from the basement level up to and around the escalator/stair core.

"This created a safe working platform for the stair to be installed as well as protection for the public using the stairway," Vandervoort says.

Key Players

Owner: City of Houston/Continental Airlines, Houston

General Contractor: SpawGlass Construction, Houston

Construction Manager: Gilbane/NIC, Houston

Lead Design: Parsons, Houston

Civil: AECOM/DMJM Aviation, Houston

Structural: Haynes Whaley Associates, Houston

MEP: Jones Engineers, Houston

Submitted by:

SpawGlass Construction