"Renovated terminal shaping up at Houston airport"

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Renewed terminal shaping up
Big projects at main airport soon will be completed
By BILL HENSEL JR.
The Houston (TX) Chronicle


When the expansive new Terminal E opened at Houston's biggest airport,
it made Terminal C look, well, somewhat dated.
 
But a major renovation at the older terminal at Bush Intercontinental
Airport aims to change that.

"The whole idea is brighter and lighter and more open," said Robert
Postma, senior manager in Continental's corporate real estate division.

That's already evident in the northwest wing of Terminal C, which opened
back up July 1 and is serving travelers. The remainder of the work,
including the ongoing construction on the north wing, is to be completed
in November.

That's not all. In early 2005, a new federal inspection building is set
to open at Intercontinental, albeit behind schedule, that will house the
Citizenship and Immigration Services, Customs and Border Protection, the
Department of Agriculture, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and other
federal agencies. Its opening will mark the completion of most of the
major projects at the airport, which are part of a $2.6 billion
multiyear expansion and renovation of the Houston Airport System.

It hasn't been easy. Mother Nature has intervened in more ways than one,
with near-record rains and the discovery at the airport of an
underground stream, of all things, that forced some time-consuming
design changes.

The 685,000-square-foot federal inspection facility, originally supposed
to have been completed last year, will increase the number of
international travelers who can be processed from 2,500 to 4,000 per
hour. The $190 million project will feature over-roadway connectors to
Terminals D and E.

Houston-based Continental oversaw construction of and manages Terminal
E, including contracting for food concessions. Continental leases
Terminal C and is the lone airline operating there, but those vendors
contract with the city.

For Terminal C, Continental has been acting as project manager
overseeing the $58 million construction contract. When design and
related costs are thrown in, the total for the project was roughly $77
million.

"This is the first job Continental managed for the city," Postma said.
"The reason for that is it truly is right in our living room. It is
their building that we occupy almost 100 percent."

Work on the concourse of the terminal basically began the week after
Terminal E was completed last year because flights that were coming in
to Terminal C could be diverted to Terminal E. One of the pressing
reasons for renovating Terminal C was the air conditioning. The
mechanical systems couldn't keep up.

Supplemental air conditioning was installed to keep it cool, Postma
said.

The first test of whether the new systems would prove adequate was
answered the day the northwest wing was opened, Postma said.

"We had four cold calls," he said.


 Do you have an opinion about this story?
Share it with other readers in our CAA Discussion Forums

http://www.californiaaviation.org/dcfp/dcboard.php


*****************************************