Terminal progress

Building the new Midfield Terminal at the Southwest Florida International Airport in Fort Meyers, Fla., puts contractors, work and schedules against tight constraints. Here's how the job is staying on schedule, on budget and safe.

by Clair D. Urbain

The 20-year-old terminal at the Southwest Florida International Airport is a comfortable, friendly and, by most standards, modern facility. It’s also busting at its seams.

In the last decade, the population in the Fort Myers metropolitan area grew 39 percent. Today, almost six million passengers stream through the facility that was designed to handle no more than three million visitors annually. With that much traffic, it adds new meaning to the word overbooked.

New Midfield terminal
Lee County Port Authority (LCPA), which operates the airport, set out to increase terminal capacity. Although today’s 381,000 sq. ft. terminal with 17 gates is still relatively new, an in-depth study proved a new terminal was the best way to meet today’s congestion and tomorrow’s projected growth. Its solution was to build a $438 million, nearly 800,000 sq. ft. terminal south of the existing runway. It will have 28 gates on three concourses with room to expand concourses, plus the option to add concourses, for a total capacity of up to 65 gates.

“The terminal is scheduled to open in April 2005, and is designed to handle the steadily growing number of passengers, flights and increased post 9-11 security measures,” says Joe Glowacki, construction manager for DMJM Aviation,  LCPA’s project representative.

“This has been an interesting project from the beginning. From site preparation to tying new taxiways into the runway, it requires coordination and communication to stay on schedule,” he says.

The project is split into nine segments, with similar work on different areas put together in bid packages. Each segment was awarded as a separate prime contract, with Dick Corporation acting as the prime contractor for the terminal building construction.

“From design through construction, we have zoned the work to be able to coordinate construction,” says Glowacki. “That helps us keep contractors working side-by-side with as few interruptions as possible. That gets even more important as work concentrates in the terminal and concourses,” he says. The project is nearly 60 percent complete.

Site preparation
Site work started on the project in early 2002, with Phoenix Construction Services of Lynn Haven, Florida, building up the elevation of the terminal and parking areas on the 1,200 acre site. “The area surrounding the airport had to be raised by as much as 3',” says Glowacki. “Almost all of the fill, which totals 3.5 million cu. yd., was excavated from an area south of the facility that is now a 12'- to 15'-deep, 240-acre lake for storm water control,” he says.

To handle the water runoff from the facility, 92,500 linear ft. of drainage funnels rainwater to two canals that carry it to a dry settling area before it is released into the newly created lake. The water is held here until it is eventually released into the county water management system.

Much of the new site was in low-lying wet areas. The airport and designers compensated for any wetlands that had to be filled by initiating a 7,000-acre mitigation park project that creates fresh water marshes and enhanced uplands in an adjacent wildlife refuge corridor.

Foundation and road work
While three engineering firms worked on separate parts of the project, the foundation work was awarded to one contractor. “This is a case where we wanted to get bids for work that was similar, so we put the foundation work for the upper-level roadway, terminal and parking garage together,” says Glowacki.

PCL Construction Services of Orlando started piling work in September 2002 after an extensive soil sampling and study. In all, the contractor placed more than 5,000 pilings from 14" to 24" in diameter up to 80' deep for the facility.

To handle traffic, Better Roads, Naples, Florida, is building a new 3.7-mile road to the new terminal.

“Construction traffic uses roads set apart from the roads used by the present terminal,” says Glowacki. “All construction is outside of the secured area of the airport, so we don’t need extensive security checks on workers.”

However, the site is guarded 24 hours a day and construction access is severely limited. Any worker coming on the site must have a sticker on his or her hard hat that shows the worker has been through the 1 1/2-hour safety orientation. “We do not allow anyone to work on the site without going through training,” says Glowacki. “It’s part of our owner-controlled insurance program (OCIP). We think it greatly reduces injuries on the site.”

While jobsite traffic is away from airport traffic, DMJM Aviation also wanted to minimize worker traffic close to the jobsite. It established a 30-acre job trailer, parking, supply and equipment staging area a few minutes from the site. “We have a bus that takes workers to the site. We don’t have any of the workers’ vehicles parked around the job. Because job trailers are in a secure area, we have had no problems with theft or property damage,” he says.

Air side connection to the runway
While anyone on a construction project can conceptually relate to being up to their you-know-what in alligators while trying to drain the swamp, Steve Monks, project manager for John Carlo, Inc., can relate to it quite literally.

This contractor is responsible for the flatwork on the air side, land side, elevated parkway and flat parking areas on the job.

Monks, who has worked extensively in Canada, is more familiar with freeze-thaw cycles than the high groundwater table and the many species that call the Florida swamps home. Instead of freezing temperatures, his crews must deal with sub-tropical rainstorms that can halt taxiway and apron construction for days. “This is a 1,200-acre site with many open ditches. We do much of our work at night, so we must check the site for alligators and snakes. We have not had a direct problem, but they are out there and we must always check for them before we start work,” he says.

“Last summer had particularly heavy rains. We had 30" of precipitation from August 30 to September 28. Florida is so flat that when it rains heavily as far as 100 miles away, it flows like a sheet and it eventually affects your job. We regularly use 12" pumps to get water away from the site so we can continue with flat work,” he says.

On the air side, tying the taxiways into the runway requires precise coordination with the FAA, but the heavy rain in 2003 and tight security and safety requirements allowed the crews to complete only seven of the nine taxiway tie-ins to the runway. “When the last flight goes out at night, we have until the first flight in the morning to work on the taxiway. It’s like a city street. It must be open in the morning,” he says.

“We are front-loading the rest of our work, increasing the earth-moving crews to get most of it finished before May. We want the earthwork to be done on the air side, land side and garage parking areas so we can work wherever it’s fit,” he says.

Increased security changed design
Design work on the Midfield Terminal building was nearly complete when the Transportation Security Administration and the FAA required extensive – and expensive – screening systems for passengers and their baggage. “This caused the project to go back into design to accommodate all of the security equipment,” says Glowacki. “In the end, it added a 27,000 sq. ft., 30' x 900' addition in the baggage-handling area for additional security equipment. It also meant redesigning passenger check-in and screening areas. That required close coordination with the designers and the contractors,” he says.

Nearly 1,000 workers within 1,000'
With work on the terminal building progressing rapidly, Glowacki says the site will average 800 workers per day for a wide variety of specialty trades. That requires exceptional coordination and communication, he says.

The terminal is divided into 12 zones with each concourse separated into four zones. “We track work progress in each zone, releasing control of any zone from one type of contractor to another to minimize congestion and improve safety. We meet with the general contractors every week to discuss progress and safety issues as the construction progresses. It has been working well,” he says.

To assure a safer workplace, the LCPA hired Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. to coordinate its owner-controlled insurance program (OCIP), says Lenore Morrill, OCIP insurance coordinator for Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

“OCIPs are more popular on the West Coast, but we are seeing more of them on the East Coast and in Chicago as well,” says Morrill. “They are great for projects greater than $100 million. These tend to be public projects with many contractors involved, most of which could not afford the insurance needed on such a large project. This also allows smaller contractors to be a part of the project,” she says.

Under an OCIP, consistent safety measures are put in place and enforced across all contractors. It also offers medical coverage for any injuries and general liability coverage with a five-year tail in case a contractor goes out of business.

“Insurance companies like OCIPs because they help control costs at the front end with good management so litigation isn’t needed later in the project," she says.

Part of the OCIP requires that every worker on the site completes a 1 1/2-hour safety orientation before they set foot on the jobsite for the first time. Bill Wojtkowski, OCIP safety director employed by Construction Safety Services, Inc., conducts the safety orientation at least four times a week.

When a worker completes the training, which is available in English and Spanish, he “labels” that worker’s hard hat with a sticker. “No worker is allowed on the site without a sticker,” he says.

During training, Wojtkowski uses a variety of teaching methods to get safety messages across. “Illiteracy is something I watch for. If any worker has trouble with the material, I will work with that person one-on-one to assure he or she knows what we expect in the way of safe behavior.

“The most important thing I stress is that unsafe behavior is not tolerated, and there are consequences. I also reinforce that I am a resource to help them do their job safely. If they think a task is unsafe, it probably is and I am here to help them find a safer way to do it. I want to motivate them as a coach and have them police themselves. It’s more effective than relying on my constant presence,” he says.

Contractors meet every other week to discuss specific safety concerns. “This job changes every day and we have had more than 5,000 workers go through our training program,” says Morrill. “That means there is lots of turnover and the job is a moving target. With 800 workers on a job on any day, there will be some incidents, but we have had far fewer of them and no major injuries or deaths.

“Any contractor with more than 20 employees on the site must have a full-time safety person on the job. They are also required to attend bi-weekly safety meetings,” she says.

Wojtkowski tours the site daily. As he audits work, he will write infractions to workers for unsafe practices. “If a worker is cited for doing an unsafe work practice, that person will receive a one-, two- or three-day work suspension, depending on the seriousness of the violation or the number of past offenses. With three safety violations, the worker is banned from the site forever.

“We have had near-misses. A fall-arrest system saved a life and safety glasses saved an eye or possibly even a life. This illustrates the importance of a proactive safety program. There are no exceptions; even people from DMJM Aviation and members of the board of county commissioners must follow our rules. It’s the only way to keep the site as safe as possible,” he says.

“This safety program is supported from the top and they are depending on it to make this a safer jobsite and to allow a job of this magnitude to be completed. The OCIP allows disadvantaged business enterprises to be a part of the job. We have lots of heavy construction going on and it can be very dangerous work. That is why a no-tolerance program is essential,” says Morrill

Published in the March 2004 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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