Airport Construction Project Roles Now Come With Extra Baggage
At Boston's Logan Airport, crews are driving some 170 piles to a depth of up to 130 ft and ordering steel beams for 90,000 sq ft of additional space to the existing terminal in a $106-million project. This would not be an unusual job for an airport undergoing a $4.4-billion modernization program except that this particular project might not have happened if not for Sept. 11.
The airport earlier this month also received a record of decision approving a new runway, a crucial step in an almost 30-year struggle to increase capacity to save some 90,000 hours a year in flight delays. Logan is a model of the present and future challenges facing aviation construction-building for security while anticipating the return of capacity needs. "We have a little bit for everybody," notes Chris Brady, director of capital programs for the modernization program.