Indianapolis Airport Update

Briefly Grounded, Terminal Now Proceeding at Full Throttle

by Steve Kaelble

It’s difficult to find an airport facility not experiencing delays, and the $413 million Midfield Terminal under way at Indianapolis International Airport is no exception.

Construction ground to a halt several months ago when one of the temporary shoring towers used to support massive roof beams crumpled at the top. That caused a piece of the truss to drop about 16 in., and the shift led another shoring tower to fail as well.

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There were no injuries, but the incident forced several weeks of work shutdown in the main terminal area, while workers studied the extent of the damage and made a plan for adding more shoring towers. Some contractors were able to shift their focus to tasks along the concourses, which were not affected, and others were able to adjust their schedules to make up lost time once the problem was fixed.

After spending some time idling, the project has caught a tailwind and is just about on-track for an on-time arrival.

As a result, the project is expected to be done in the fourth quarter this year, probably in November, says Rich Potosnak, president of program manager Aviation Capital Management, the Indianapolis-based program manager. The new midfield terminal was almost fully enclosed by Thanksgiving.

A 200-Ft-Wide Skylight

One of the contractors affected by the temporary shutdown was Menomonee Falls, Wis.-based Novum Structures LLC, which had just started work on one of the terminal’s signature features: a 200-ft-wide circular skylight in the roof some 60 ft above a public plaza. Neil Dunbar, manager of regional projects for Novum, says the element has 884 massive panes resting atop a steel structure.

“It is shaped like a Pringles chip,” Dunbar says. “We used steel trusses spanning north and south, spaced 5 ft apart, 4 in. wide by 16 in. deep. There are 177 rafters, all painted in three-coat high-performance paint.”

Why steel? With such a wide and massive window, Dunbar says, nothing else would adequately support the weight of the glass. Each pane is 9 ft long, 5 ft wide and weighs 700 to 800 lbs.

“Once the rafters were installed, we had to install sway rods every 14 ft,” Dunbar says.

A major function of the rods is to push and pull the steel beams into completely straight, parallel rows. It’s impossible to fabricate steel quite as arrow-straight as a watertight skylight requires, so the sway rods get the job done.

Aluminum U-channels were installed along the steel beams to hold the glass panels in place.

“Once the glass is in place, you have gaps in which you push-fit a gasket from the bottom and caulk from the top,” Dunbar says.

Laminated and insulated glass was chosen for the skylight structure. Each pane includes multiple sheets of glass a layer, an insulating space, a double glass layer and polyvinyl butyral strengthening sheet in between. The panels offer temperature and noise insulation and safety features that will prevent shards of glass from falling should any panels break.

To install the structure 60 ft above the plaza floor, telescoping boom lifts were used. Once the glass panels were installed, they provided a safe walking surface for workers performing exterior finishing tasks.

Design of the skylight began in late 2005, Dunbar says. The original plan was to complete installation by April 2007, but the work shutdown in January kept crews away until March. In response, Novum picked up the pace when it came time to install the glass.

“We managed to install as many as 40 lights a day,” Dunbar says. “We did it in six weeks.”

Closing in On Destination

Progress continues on the rest of the terminal, as well.

“On the concourse we’re fully enclosed for the winter,” Aviation Capital’s Potosnak says. “We have the exterior skin completed, the roof completed and are painting structural steel.”

Terrazzo work has begun inside the terminal, and the baggage system is 90% mechanically installed. Just about all the hot and chilled water piping is done, and permanent equipment is already heating the building. Along the concourses, aircraft loading bridges began arriving in December.

Even as construction continues, some of the terminal’s finishing touches are being put in place. Some 16 projects and 30 individual works are part of the terminal art plan, with costs totaling about $4 million.

For example, a glass mural was installed in May, and a bronze-and-limestone work was being hauled into place in November. Other elements on the way include a glass wall with diagrams of birds in flight, giant artwork to be hung on cables under the skylight even the terrazzo work incorporates artists’ designs.

The overall project carries a price tag of $1.1 billion, and includes the terminal and massive parking structure. Nearby is the airport’s new air-traffic control tower the country’s third-tallest along with a site where an adjacent airport hotel will be constructed.

The airport terminal will include 40 gates, seven more than the current terminal, with space to add more later. Two of the gates will be international, with the ability to accommodate an Airbus A380 jumbo jet. The terminal will include the latest security technology, and Potosnak notes that the technology and federal security requirements have evolved during the course of the project. That has required flexibility on the part of airport designers and construction workers.

“The majority of the changes have happened in baggage and closed-circuit TV, a lot of them the result of directives issued by the Transportation Security Administration,” he says.

As 2008 progresses, the airport terminal will speed closer to completion. Airline spaces will be fitted this spring, and an extensive testing and acceptance program will get under way as the building and its systems are completed.

“We’ll also be putting together a series of transition plans for the move,” Potosnak says.

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