Clark Construction and the Port of Seattle have resolved a legal battle around the construction of an international arrivals project at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
The Bethesda, Maryland-based contractor and the port jointly filed a settlement agreement in King County Superior Court at the end of 2024, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported last week.
The original lawsuits were filed in late 2022 and early 2023. Initially, the project was set to be completed in 2018 for $344 million, but the COVID-19 pandemic slowed progress and the facility was actually delivered in 2022 for closer to $1 billion, according to the Seattle Times
Clark, which served as the general contractor for the airport's international arrivals facility, will pay the port $28 million and the port will pay Clark $13.79 million, per memos from the Port of Seattle’s commission meeting in December.
Partly at issue was the spacing of the 11 gates at the terminal, which were supposed to fit a total of 20 wide-body planes at one time, the Business Journal reported. The port said that the finished terminal could only hold 16 planes, which would severely limit the airport’s revenue, as it charges double for accommodating those larger planes.
In the lawsuits, the port requested $100 million to recoup lost revenue, but Clark claimed the port still owed $60 million for design changes, which included $47 million for costs as a result of the pandemic, the Business Journal reported.
“The Port of Seattle is pleased to have reached a settlement through mediation with the IAF Design-Builder,” Perry Cooper, media relations manager for the airport said in a statement shared with Construction Dive.
Over the course of the litigation, the port developed lower-cost solutions to the gate problems with a plan to add two new gates, Cooper said. The settlement will help fund the two new gates, he said.
Clark did not respond to Construction Dive’s request for comment.
Sea-Tac is in the midst of a $5 billion series of upgrades, including 120 construction projects, according to the Seattle Times. The airport hopes to finish those jobs ahead of Seattle hosting several World Cup soccer games in summer 2026.
Among those jobs is the $260 million expansion of C Concourse. Turner Construction recently topped out on the steel of the 226,000-square-foot structure, the New York City-based firm announced in December.
The six-story renovation project will add four levels to the existing structure, introduce expanded dining and retail, create additional seating and add a 1,300-square-foot extension to the passenger waiting area.
