DIA Concourse C West Expansion

CASE STUDY

WSA works with Denver International Airport AIM Team and 3 different General Contractors to design and build a new 9-gate facility in 24 months.

DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (DEN)

AIRSIDE CONCOURSE C WEST EXPANSION – NEW CONSTRUCTION

Issue - Project Scope, Budget and Aggressive Schedule

WSA lead the design team on the Concourse C 5-Gate West Expansion (9 total, 5 new and 4 existing being “right-sized”). The difficulty of this project was developing a plan to meet the aggressive schedule and capped budget, while working with 3 general contractors. The crucial schedule consideration was to deliver 5 new gates to the airline prior to the Thanksgiving Holiday season, which had been contracted by DEN with the airline.

Solution – WSA’s Unique Project Approach

WSA worked with DEN to create four distinct bid packages, each designed to work with specific scopes of work and construction phasing. These packages were ‘fast-tracked’, meaning it needed to be delivered on time to the three individual General Contractors matching the sequence of construction. This allowed the design and detailing to move forward while construction started, with the final design and engineering documents being developed.

Project Success

Our team met the aggressive design schedule, which included the 4 separate Bid Packages, working directly with Denver Water, Xcel Energy and the Building Department to obtain timely permits. This reduced our turn-around time on submittals and kept questions to a minimum. WSA managed the three construction contracts with DEN and worked closely with the separate Apron Paving Designer/Contractor to ensure overall coordination. Communication between WSA and our consultant team, DEN and the 3 GC’s was critical for the project success, each group working together to achieve the lofty goal.

The project was completed on-time and within the established budget, meeting DEN’s contractual goals, airline scheduling and providing a new, state-of-the-art facility for the travelling passengers to enjoy.

Details

A new 80,000 SF, $30 million-dollar project’s schedule was met to deliver the Schematic Design through construction completion/occupancy in 2 years (delivered before Thanksgiving 2014).

Lessons Learned

The project was completed on-budget and on-time, due to the collaborative Team approach of working with DEN, the 3 GC’s and quick responses of every team member to each hurdle.