UPDATE: Kansas City, MO, officials have issued a request for proposals for firms to design, build and privately finance a new terminal at Kansas City International Airport under a public-private partnership, according to the Kansas City Business Journal. Bids for the project — which would cost approximately $1 billion and include a 750,000-square-foot terminal and a parking garage — are due on June 20.

Dive Brief:

• AECOM has offered up its integrated project delivery services to Kansas City International Airport officials, who are in the beginning stages of construction planning for a new terminal, according to The Kansas City Star. 

• The AECOM pitch came two weeks after Kansas City–based firm Burns & McDonnell sent city officials an unsolicited $1 billion proposal to privately finance the new terminal. Some Kansas City Council members pushed back against the prospect of privatization and expected that other solicitations would follow.

• Officials said they must also ensure they could legally accept such a proposal under a no-bid scenario. Some city council members said they believe they can issue airport revenue bonds at a lower interest rate than can private companies and that the terminal should be bid out as a design-build project.

Dive Insight:  

Engineering News-Record ranked AECOM as the No. 1 U.S. airport design firm in 2016, raking in revenue of $413.8 million, according to The Kansas City Star. Burns & McDonnell also made the list, coming in at No. 3 with $71.3 million.

AECOM, as part of a $1 billion capital improvement program at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in Arlington, VA, designed a $245 million security checkpoint for an existing retail area and a new $408 million concourse with joint venture partner PGAL. The project will also include a new parking garage, baggage handling renovations and both landside and airside infrastructure work.

On a smaller scale, in July 2016, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport awarded AECOM a five-year, $100 million contract for program and construction management services for multiple airfield and landside improvements, as well as for various building projects around the airport. The AECOM contract also includes "full project lifecycle services" to the airport's Design, Code and Construction Department.

AECOM has been a consultant to the airport for the last 30 years and, at the time of the five-year award, was underway with a $2.7 billion in renovations to terminals B and E. 

This work barely makes a dent in what U.S. airports need, however. According to the Airports Council International–North America, it would take about $100 billion over the next five years to modernize and repair the country's airports. That figure is up 32% from the figure the council cited a year ago and is more than double the income airports currently generate from user fees, grants and revenues.