Dive Brief:

• The Nashville International Airport Board of Commissioners last week voted to award Colorado-based Hensel Phelps the $327 million design-build contract for the airport's terminal lobby and International Arrivals Facility project. This contract represents a third of the of the value of the airport's $1.2 billion BNA Vision capital expansion project and brings Hensel Phelps' total contracts there to $567 million.
• Work under the 440,000-square-foot project includes elevation of the terminal lobby ceiling, a new roof canopy, connection of the terminal's garage parking to the central terminal via pedestrian bridge, an expanded security checkpoint with 24 screening lanes and a new central marketplace area that has views of the airfield. The new international arrivals component, which will be a west-side addition to the terminal, will feature six gates capable of accommodating large, international aircraft, and a new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) area. The new addition will allow the airport to expand its international nonstop service.
• Hensel Phelps is set to start construction late next year, with completion scheduled for fall of 2023. “We understand that every great landmark starts with a vision," said Kirk Hazen, vice president and district manager at Hensel Phelps, "and it’s our job to bring BNA Vision to life with a comprehensive team approach that begins with innovative planning and extends throughout the entire life of the project." 

Dive Insight:

The work under Hensel Phelps' $240 million contract at the airport is currently underway and will see the addition of 200,000 square feet to an existing terminal and a remodel of its current 136,000 square feet, a new 115,000-square-foot concourse, six new domestic gates, new dining and retail space and a new 11,000-square-foot central utility plant. The project should be complete by the summer of 2020.

Other projects planned or underway at the airport and also part of the BNA Vision initiative are a new $122 million parking and transportation center being built by JE Dunn Construction; a $44 million terminal apron and taxi lane extension, the first phase of which is under construction by Eutaw Construction Co. and Blakely Construction; and a 3,000-space terminal parking garage and 64,000-square-foot administrative project being designed and built by Messner Construction and Moody Nolan. The airport is also planning $90 million of terminal access roadway improvements, scheduled to start construction in 2020.

Nashville, like other U.S. airports, is taking aged, obsolete facilities and upgrading them in order to meet rising passenger capacity demands. Nashville airport officials expect annual passenger traffic to rise from its current 14 million to 23 million by 2041.