ENR Texas & Louisiana named Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport its Owner of the Year for 2012. DFW is in the midst of a $2.2-billion program that not only aims to update the airport’s facilities, it also transforms how the airport works with the design and construction community.

ENR Texas & Louisiana’s Owner of the Year feature will appear in our April 16 issue.

The seven-year Terminal Renewal and Improvement Program will revitalize and remodel the airport’s legacy Terminals - A, B, C and E. As part of a larger facility-wide sustainability program, airport authorities pushed for the project to go paperless. By pushing this initiative, designers and contractors that typically work in a 2D world, are now communicating through 3D models and BIM-related tools.

Shared databases were created to house document from all parties to ensure that everyone works from the same files, reducing the risk of errors. Conflicts are resolved in the virtual world, rather than in the field, saving time and money. Field staff use iPads rather than printed design sheets to review plans. Because these models will be used for operations and maintenance after work is complete, DFW is pushing for consistency.

Much of the program project falls under contracts with two separate joint ventures—BARC [Balfour Beatty Construction, Azteca Enterprises, H.J. Russell & Co. and CARCON Industries] and MBJ3 [Manhattan Construction Co., Thos. S. Byrne, James R. Thompson, and 3i Construction]. BARC, which broke ground on its scope of work first, was instructed by the owner to cross competitive lines and work with MBJ3 to ensure that common technology platforms were used and that modeling would be consistent.