Several recent articles have marked the successful on time and on budget completion of the $2.4 billion Las Vegas Airport McCarren field Terminal 3. This five year project was managed by Bechtel and constructed by Perini Building Co. and a cast of thousands.
Here is ENR Southwest:
The five-year undertaking employed 1,800 people working more than 9.5 million man-hours. "It's a bit of a letdown to see it done," says Sean Stewart, executive vice president, Associated General Contractors, Las Vegas chapter. "There aren't any billion-dollar projects on the horizon."
Bechtel Infrastructure Corp. was the program manager; Perini Building Co. was general contractor for the three-level, 1.9-million-sq-ft terminal building under a $1.2-billion contract. The terminal is joined by several other projects that were completed at different times: a 5,954-space, 2.3-million-sq-ft, $121.7-million garage built by McCarthy Building Cos.; an eight-mile elevated roadway system built by Las Vegas Paving Corp.; a 100,000-sq-ft central plant built by Penta Building Group; and a 900-ft-long automated connecting tram. McCarthy also constructed the $153.7-million early civil site improvements.
Touted as the state’s largest public works job ever, construction proved tricky with more than 100 contracting companies working simultaneously on multiple phases in close vicinity around a fully operating airport. Despite the size and complexity, the project still finished on time and on budget. All told, it was the largest expansion in the airport’s 64-year history, and brings the four-runway, 2,800-acre McCarran to final build-out at 117 gates....and the Las Vegas Review Journal:
Air carriers objected to awarding the general contract for Terminal 3 in July 2008, as the economy plunged into recession and oil prices soared above $140 a barrel. Because of the difficult economic outlook, they argued for putting the project on hold after a decade of planning. The county went ahead anyway with Perini Building Co. of Henderson as the main contractor and PGAL of Houston as the architect. ....
In the short run, airlines will pay the price for Terminal 3. Cost per enplanement, the industry benchmark that calculates how much a carrier pays in airport fees and rent for each passenger, is estimated to hit a record high of $12.06 at McCarran during the coming fiscal year, a 160 percent increase from 2006.
Many airports, including McCarran, are largely self-supporting. They receive funding from federal ticket taxes, but no operating subsidy from local governments. Airline use fees, parking garage revenue, rent from tenants such as gift shops, restaurants and rental car companies pay the bulk of terminal construction and operating costs.
...and the Las Vegas Business Press:
It's the largest expansion project in McCarran's 64-year history and one of the most challenging, said Michael Kerchner, project executive for Perini Building Co., a division of Tutor Perini Corp....
"Just bringing everyone together ... you had the utility plant, the roadways, the parking garage and the apron. If you consider putting a half-mile structure in the middle of that and the contractors working in the same yard ... so just the logistics of it," Kerchner said.
He started every day with meetings at 6 a.m. to keep everyone abreast of what was going on. They followed a "critical path" method for scheduling, reaching 18 milestones through the course of the contract. "We knew the only way to make it work is to allow everybody to accomplish their goal. So the challenges were interfacing with other contractors. We started coordinating with PGAL (architects), the structural engineer and steel contractor even before the notice to proceed," Kerchner said.
At the peak of construction, Terminal 3 employed about 1,800 workers from four primary contractors and more than 70 subcontractors. More than 9.5 million manhours of labor were logged since construction started in June 2007.
All of the related projects had to be linked together not only with technical aspects, but with site logistics, said Dan Wright, project manager for San Francisco-based Bechtel Infrastructure Corp., construction management firm for Clark County Department of Aviation.
"As you can imagine, these are lump-sum projects on a low-bid basis, so it's critical that each contractor had the opportunity to get their work done," he said. "The planning we did on the front end, that was critical. And just very close management of the project and trying to avoid changes that would affect the cost of the project."
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