Dallas/Fort Worth
Region Texas & Louisiana
Project Team
Owner DFW International Airport
Lead Design Firm Jacobs Engineering Group
General Contractor BARC, Balfour Beatty, AZTECA, H.J. Russell and CARCON, a joint venture
Owner’s Representative Paslay Management Group
Structural Engineer L.A. Fuess Partners Inc.
Civil Engineer Jacobs Engineering Group
Mechanical Engineer CH2M
Plumbing-Electrical Engineer Multatech
Architect Corgan

In 2012, DFW International Airport moved to replace Terminal A’s building system after the original system had reached the end of its service life. This project, which involved the installation of new, more efficient primary systems, incorporated innovative ideas for passenger processing, allowing DFWIA and airlines to adapt to rapid changes in technology and passenger demographics.

With Balfour Beatty as managing partner, the BARC joint-venture team began the $140-million, 400,000-sq-ft project in May 2012 and completed work in December 2014.

Using integrated-project-delivery principles, the entire BARC team created a co-located jobsite that cultivated collaboration and helped to expedite the complex process of coordinating and resolving issues.

During construction, BARC teams contended with the airport’s need to maintain 24/7 operations as well as security and site access for both personnel and construction materials. Workers also had to perform abatement and construction above operational back-of-house areas and overcome unforeseen conditions.

A carefully mapped plan allowed the team to keep the airport safely operational during 1.3 million worker-hours while renovating all back-of-house systems. BARC’s safety program was centered on a zero-harm approach in which processes and procedures are geared to be proactive and an integral part of operations.

The judges noted that the management of the project came across strongly with the four-way joint venture, with the project team using all the advantages technology could offer. “Heavy use of e-technology—with BIM and cloud technology—helped with the teamwork,” one juror said. BARC’s cloud-based document-management system ultimately yielded $5 million in savings for the owner.

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