LaGuardia Airport Redevelopment: Public-Private (P3) Partnership
TRC led the engineering, quality assurance inspection and non-destructive testing for all the construction materials required as part of this major renovation and redevelopment project.
Challenge: Modernize on of the World’s Busiest Airports
LaGuardia Airport (LGA) is one of the three main international airports in the NYC metropolitan area. In June 2016, after decades of the facility being known as old, inefficient and ill equipped to handle an increasingly high volume of air travelers, then Governor Andrew Cuomo, along with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), announced plans to completely renovate the old airport, leveraging an alternate project financing structure with both private and public dollars.
Phase one of the redevelopment – which involved replacing the airport’s Central Terminal Building (Terminal B) with a new 1.3 million square-foot facility with 35 gates – took place from 2017-2021. At a cost of $4 billion, it was considered the largest Public-Private Partnership involving aviation in the United States.
Solution: Expert Oversight to Ensure Quality and Safety in all Structural Materials
As a subconsultant to the project’s design-builder, Skanska-Walsh Joint Venture, TRC led the critical materials engineering and QA/QC inspection for all new and renovated facilities included in the redevelopment. With both domestic and international fabrication shops in Germany, Austria, China and South Korea, our team conducted non-destructive testing (NDT) of all structural materials used in the new and improved airport facilities. Our team oversaw:
- Precast member fabrication (2,729 members)
- Structural steel fabrication (40,000 tons)
- Bridge steel fabrication (20 total bridges)
- Curtain wall fabrication
- Welded steel pipe foundations (7,040 piles)
In addition, TRC led the development of Quality System platforms to integrate with the project’s Building Information Models. We conducted special inspections in accordance with the NYC Dept. of Buildings; reviewed sitewide utility plans and specifications for water, gravity sewer, sewer force main and storm drains; reviewed airside gravity sewer and storm drain plans and specifications; inspected and tested the utilities and runway lighting and runway pavement; and led the QA/QC inspections for building renovations.
Our team served as key advisors to Skanska-Walsh for the resolution of QA/QC issues with the PANYNJ Materials Engineering Unit and we delivered electronic inspection reporting and web-based databases to compile documents into Final Acceptance Packages.
Result: Award Winning Redevelopment
The redevelopment of Terminal B was completed in 2021. The new facility was awarded the Prix Versailles from UNESCO, gaining recognition for LGA as the best new airport in the world. A second phase of redevelopment was completed in 2022, opening an expansive new Terminal for Delta and connecting it to the main airport.
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