New $105M Airport Ground Facilities Critical Milestone in O’Hare Runway Modernization

Mortenson used innovative construction technologies and Lean practices to build three major new ground facilities totaling 180,000 square feet for United Airlines at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport (Illinois) in less than a year. The contractor fast-tracked the project because United Airlines needed to vacate its previous ground facilities to make way for runway construction at O’Hare.

Completion of the United project is a critical milestone in O’Hare’s massive modernization of its runways, which includes adding and extending some while closing others. The runway work complements the planned $8.5-billion investment to upgrade terminals and other amenities and add the first new gates at the airport in nearly 25 years.

Ground was broken on the $105-million United project, which also included 1.2 million square feet of airside paving, in the last week of December 2017. Ghafari Associates served as architect, Ardmore Roderick as the lead project manager on the apron paving, Thornton Tomasetti as structural engineer, DB Sterlin as the civil engineer for the buildings, Burns & McDonnell as civil engineer for the aprons and Jones Lang LaSalle as owner’s representative.

Given the project’s tight turnaround and complexity, project team members relied on a range of Lean and other innovative tools and processes:

• Simultaneous drawings for structural steel: The team eschewed the traditional linear process for structural steel, which would have involved Thornton Tomasetti developing designs, then Mortenson’s structural steel subcontractor creating the next level of detail with shop drawings, and then waiting for Thornton Tomasetti to review and sign off on them. Instead, the two companies developed their versions of the drawings nearly simultaneously using a shared software platform from Thornton Tomasetti. This approach cut as much as eight weeks from the schedule vs. the standard approach.
• Pull planning: This Lean approach optimized coordination and productivity of the many subcontractors. For each phase of the project, such as the exterior work or underground work, a Mortenson project engineer would meet with all the subcontractors to agree on the sequences and duration of each company’s work and resolve any clashes.
• Prefabrication: To ensure quality and save time, Mortenson worked with subcontractors to build the doors and hardware, as well as all of the process piping
• Staggered permitting: By securing city permits in sequence and for sections of work rather than seeking permits for the entire project at once, Mortenson minimized any schedule impacts while waiting for permits and FAA clearances.

The just-completed O’Hare project consisted of:

Ground maintenance equipment facility

The two-story, 140,000-square-foot building features single-story, 38-foot bays, with 11 overhead bridge cranes, four different kinds of vehicle lifts and 54 overhead doors. The building is equipped with paint booth, loading dock, battery storage area, an automated storage and retrieval system and pallet racks with an automated handling system. The GEM also houses two oil water separators, a fuel island for fuel tank storage, a fuel and hydraulic fluid distribution system and air compressor system. It includes administrative offices, conference and training rooms and employee locker rooms and lounges.

Facilities maintenance and stores building

This single-story, 40,000-square-foot facility provides storage space and maintenance shops for United’s facility maintenance teams. It includes five overhead doors, a loading dock, pallet rack storage system and secure cage. It also has conference and training rooms and employee break rooms and locker rooms.

Airport operations services building

This single-story, 40,000-square-foot building houses the airline’s operating services, move and positioning crews. It reaches 30 feet at its highest point to accommodate extensive storage for the provisioning teams. The pre-engineered building is equipped with 12 overhead doors, secure cage and two semi-loading docks. It also has training rooms, break rooms and locker rooms.

Apron work

This significant civil and infrastructure project resulted in 1.2 million square feet of concrete paving including new taxi lanes, concrete aprons and plane and employee parking. The paving is multi-layered, including 15-inch Portland Cement Concrete Pavement, 3/8-inch choke stone, 5-inch cement treated permeable base, geotextile fabric, 8-inch P-154M blended aggregate, 12-inch lime stabilized subgrade and millings produced onsite using recycled materials from the airfield. THE PCCP and CTPB were produced at an onsite batch plant. The work included a new storm and sanitary system, as well as electrical switchgear, transformers and switchboards. The team also installed a new duct bank to power new high-mast lighting and power planes on the apron for testing and maintenance.