Dive Brief:

• A joint venture of New York City-based Turner Construction and Broomfield, Colorado-based Flatiron Construction has been named to build a new $2.27 billion airport terminal at San Diego International Airport. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2021, pending issuance of environmental permits for the 1.2 million-square-foot project, the JV announced in a statement.
• Thirty new gates will replace the existing 1960s-era terminal, which will continue to operate during construction. Slated in two phases, 19 new gates are scheduled to open in 2025, with another 11 gates coming online in 2027.  
• The new design will help reduce aircraft taxing time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while an underground fuel delivery system will reduce the need for trucks to refuel aircraft.

​Dive Insight:

Turner and Flatiron, both of which are subsidiaries of Germany-based HOCHTIEF, have previously teamed up on airport projects in San Francisco, Oakland and Sacramento in California and a gate expansion project in Denver. The JV combines Flatiron’s experience in airside construction — i.e., runways and taxi areas — with Turner’s knowledge of airport terminals and concourse structures, according to the statement.

In the current travel environment, the San Diego contract provides evidence that some airport projects can still move forward, despite 2020's pandemic challenges. The award was announced even though the Transportation Security Administration hasn’t screened more than 1 million daily passengers nationally since March 16. 

Airport projects that have continued during COVID-19 have provided a relative bright spot for infrastructure contractors in 2020. Many of those same firms have been challenged by uncertainty over road and bridge projects, as well as state funding, during the pandemic.

But other airport projects that were planned or already underway have been halted or postponed due to concerns about the ongoing impacts of the pandemic and severe reductions in travel. 

Earlier this summer, despite some challenges due to COVID-19, Skanska USA lifted the curtain on LaGuardia’s $4 billion new Concourse B in New York to modernize the notoriously congested facility.

But in May, a $1.1 Pittsburgh airport modernization project was put on hold, amid a 95% reduction in traffic through the facility.