Sustainability Takes Off in Airport Planning and Design

Snaking security lines, crowded lobbies, and long runway waits at our nation’s airports are all indications of the increasing demand for air travel services. Today’s airports must employ smart design strategies to stretch limited dollars, make more efficient use of space, and address tough social and security issues.

With the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, the aviation industry came to a screeching halt as travel demand plummeted, security issues took center stage, and projects evaporated. Today our airports have rebounded with every facility in the nation exceeding their pre-9/11 numbers.

According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), in 2004 our nation’s airports managed a staggering 647 million enplanements—the industry term used to designate airplane passenger boardings—at the 599 airports it certifies for scheduled flights, the ones used by the average vacation and business traveler. On some days—December 24, for example—and in certain months—July, for instance—usage surged, but in general, people boarded and disembarked from some airplane at some airport 54 million times in any single month that year.

In fact, the FAA reports that 12.9 million flights were logged by airports as coming and going out of their gates in 2004. Ten years from now, the FAA estimates controllers will log 17.1 million arrivals and departures of aircraft to accommodate a nearly four-percent yearly increase in people traveling here and abroad.

Together, this data indicates a growing demand for services from a matured industry that is already squeezed by space, money, and societal pressures. So how do airport operators sum up their present-day challenges and future planning criteria? In a single word: sustainability.

Maintain What’s Good; Build Better For Tomorrow

The importance of sustainability to this industry is evident. It’s in the titles of conference seminars and trade publication articles, and it’s a focus driven by the changing fortunes of our major carriers, evolving airline profitability models, society’s attention to environmental issues, demographic shifts, the restrictions of geography, and, of course, the imperatives imposed by money.

One succinct definition of sustainability is offered by the American Association of Airport Executives: maintain what’s good; build better for tomorrow. Jim Crites, executive vice president of operations for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and chairman of the Airports Council International—North America (ACI-NA) Sustainability Working Group, expands upon that definition: “In considering what to rebuild or replace, the operator must also ask, ‘Will the forthcoming revenues support the new expense of implementation, and what contributions does this facility make towards the sustainability of the operation, of the business and the environment?’”

For its 160 members, Senior Vice President Richard Marchi of Airports Council International—North America, says that sustainability has been a topic for the past three or four years, with the ongoing debate of how to “practice” it. So why—in an environment where the building industry years ago defined its own set of standards for a planet-friendly “green” design and established a well-recognized and prized certification program termed LEED—is the airport industry, which rebuilds or revamps countless buildings each year, still struggling with the issue?

According to Crites, airport facilities are unique. “LEED focuses on a building’s construction and final form. But LEED lacks a rigorous view of how that building will operate within a complex of facilities—which is the definition of an airport. The way an airplane consumes fuel, let’s say, and functions within the airport environment, is entirely different from how a hospital will use energy and exist within its neighborhood. LEED is a good starting point, but we need to establish our own performance metrics for integrated design.”

Paul Puckli, a division manager in PBS&J’s Aviation Services Division, thinks about sustainability issues in every master plan the company undertakes. He offers additional insight into how the industry grapples with “sustainability,” and why the subject is so pressing.

“The dynamics of the aviation industry are unique,” explains Puckli. “Practices are ever-changing because they’re often defined by instantaneous events. For example, our guidelines on airfield signage stem from a collision in Detroit that happened several years ago. One of the planes had gotten lost on the airfield because of poor signage. Right after that, the FAA issued standards to preclude that from happening again. Today’s security measures, as we all know, come from the events of 9/11. Clearly, in the aviation industry, many of our improvements or designs are reactions to prevent events that couldn’t have been predicted. The nature of this industry is change, sometimes with only a moment’s warning.”

Today’s stimulus for change? “Capacity,” says Puckli. “When the industry changes, airports have to change,” he says. “The dominance of the low-cost airlines—Jet Blue, AirTran, Southwest—has changed the profile of the industry. People never inclined to fly before are now buying tickets, because the low-fare carriers have made it cheaper than driving. And as these airlines grow, the demand swells, and sustainability becomes much more important, because we will continue to see growth that’s unparalleled.”

Changing Paradigms

Puckli believes that a new type of airport is on the horizon, one that is different in its servicing of travelers and its “customer” airlines. “That concept in itself is new, a turnabout from the airlines’ traditional role as gracious host,” he says, “and it will likely be different in the way airports manage their infrastructure.”

Jim Crites agrees. “To get to that which works better,” says Crites, “airports are going to have to look outward from their typical engineering to other industries.” He calls for intelligent design, “where we abandon traditional thinking to find sustainable benefits.”

A good example of this can be found at Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT). PIT had long served as U.S. Airway’s fortress hub. While baggage handling was a key operation, the terminal was configured to reflect the carrier’s many connecting flights. The hub focused on quickly moving luggage from one plane to another in one terminal.

When U.S. Airways designated PIT a “focus city” in 2004 and Southwest Airlines entered this market in the spring of 2005, the complexion of PIT changed. More people use PIT for origination flights, and this means more baggage entering the airport. Furthermore, since Southwest pins its success on quick turnaround at the gates, it was essential that baggage be handled swiftly.

At the same time, the post-9/11 environment meant that incoming baggage had to undergo TSA-mandated screening through an Explosive Detection System (EDS). To temporarily comply with the regulations, PIT placed the large EDS machines in the ticketing area of the terminal. The traveler would take the bags to the counter for ticketing, then haul them to the nearest EDS station—putting the traveler in two lines and making check-in twice as long.

“We went through many scenarios,” says PBS&J Project Manager Bob Terwilliger, PE, “and current thoughts are to build a new building specifically for the EDS machines.” The traveler hands the bags to the agent, who tags them, and loads them onto the conveyor belt for a seamless trip through the EDS machines and onto the aircraft. The stand-alone building also allows considerable flexibility, since the design includes an area where a carrier can bypass the full conveyor system and manually tug the baggage to the aircraft after it has been scanned. This allows any airline to use the baggage screening system.

The new design also brings the EDS machines “in line” at the start of the security check. The processing time is cut in half for the traveler, and the airline can get the bags onto the plane in half the time as well.

Flexibility, The Cornerstone of Sustainability

Terwilliger’s comments underscore the latest thinking in sustainability: flexible planning. “As designers, we’re looking to build in options for services and space so that any airline can come right in, plug into the systems, and be up and running quickly. This cuts airlines’ costs, and it adds to the airport’s own options for securing the revenue to maintain its own life.”

Right now, common practice is for the airline to lease a specific gate that it “owns.” In the future, Terwilliger says, especially in larger airports, carriers will arrive at whatever gate is open, turning over control to the airport. “This is a natural progression of the ‘common-use’ facilities concept, where carriers step into the plug-and-play environment. But it’s also a natural outcome of the need for more flexible scheduling driven, again, by capacity demands,” he adds.

Solutions at the World’s Busiest Airport

Sustainability has certainly been a critical consideration for the world’s most expensive runway to date: the new $1.2-billion fifth runway at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. According to the FAA, what happens in Atlanta affects many of the busiest airports. Officials hope that delays here will be reduced with the addition of the new runway, which, when completed, will allow triple simultaneous approaches into the airport. Only a few airports have been approved for this operation.

Extensive studies looked for the site that would be the most efficient and cost-effective, and have the least impact on the environment. The best of all alternatives—an area bordered on three sides by interstates—required the projected 9,000-foot runway to traverse over a 1,100-foot structure that sits above 18 lanes of I-285.

“The runway structure essentially performs like a bridge with its foundation driven into rock,” explains Dale Stubbs, PE, PBS&J program manager for the fifth runway project. “Most bridge structures that you drive over in your car don’t settle, and the embankments on either side cause a mild bump when you cross it. You can hear that ‘wha-wump’ when you approach it and leave it. Unlike cars, which have an independent suspension, airplane wings are rigid—they don’t absorb shock. The last thing the runway could tolerate was a bump.”

Stubbs’ “wha-wump” has a technical name: differential settlement.

The solution developed with the airport was not to address settlement issues that may or may not appear, but rather to incorporate strategies to handle any future mitigation for differential settlement. The team designed transition slab areas where the runway pavement transitioned to the structural tunnel pavement and inserted specially designed slabs in these areas to correct any potential future settlement.

During construction, “the site looked like a porcupine,” Stubbs recalls. “We blanketed the area with settlement rods and pins that were surveyed to quantify the settling. Eventually, Mother Nature did her thing, and we got through the primary settlement that occurs during construction. Now secondary settlement that occurs over the life of the facility is the concern, and a monitoring program will be put into place to observe these transition areas.”

“In the future, if we survey or see a crack or other indication that differential settlement or settlement beyond expectations is occurring, the airport can grout or pressure inject material to fill the voids and raise the slabs back up. The slabs are designed to handle these additional stresses.”

The long-term monitoring program will help the airport authority maintain its new facility. “If settling takes place beyond acceptable levels, specific features have been designed into the pavement and embankments to fix it,” concludes Stubbs.

A “Flight Plan” for Asheville

The Asheville Regional Airport is less than 1 percent of the size of Hartsfield-Jackson, but its managers and engineers study the projections for demand and capacity just as closely. In fact, regional airports, like Asheville, may have more at stake in when it comes to planning well, since industry trends show them to be one of the fastest growing segments in aviation. Thanks to the booming regional airlines, Asheville anticipates handling 650,000 enplanements a year by the year 2025, more than double the number in 2004.

As a result, “our focus is on the first five years of a project’s life,” says Dave Edwards, Ashville Regional Airport director, “but we know we have to preserve—and accommodate—what’s needed 20 years out.” Thinking ahead, the airport authority has just approved a plan developed by PBS&J that calls for expanding the current terminal in size by 35 percent and the parking area (for vehicles and aircraft) as well. In addition, some areas have been reconfigured to meet new security demands and the need for expanded concessions arising from those demands.

“We have recommended that the airport place new monitoring equipment in the security control room and state-of-the-art facilities for electronic baggage screening,” said Paul Puckli, project manager for the Terminal Area Planning Study at the airport. The plan calls for an expanded security checkpoint area to make room for TSA staff and added food and retail space. Because “every airport wrestles with the fact that only passengers are allowed through security,” concessions have been planned for both sides of the security gate, according to Puckli.

Smooth Air Ahead for Airports?

Few industries are more essential than aviation in a world dependent on the global connectivity of people and the rapid transport of goods across continents. For airport managers, the challenges of meeting demand are complicated by the fact that world events, market conditions, and even the business plans of as-yet-unknown entrepreneurs, can change the business climate overnight.

Will striving for the holy grail of “sustainability” help our airports weather the ups and downs of this turbulent industry? Only time will tell, but in the meantime one thing is for sure, remarks Puckli. “Every airport in the country has a capital improvement program that they’re implementing. If an airport isn’t doing something in terms of construction, they’re obsolete. ”