Client:  Chicago Department of Aviation

Location: Chicago, IL

The City of Chicago committed to increase the airport’s capacity by 60% and decrease delays by an estimated 79% with an $8 billion capital investment plan. The plan was approved by the FAA in October 2003 and involved a reconfiguration of the airfield and additional terminal space. This called for the addition of four runways, the lengthening of two existing runways and the decommissioning of two existing runways in order to give the airfield six parallel runways in a configuration.

Due to the space requirements to extend and reconfigure the necessary runways, the Chicago Department of Aviation needed to demolish the existing FedEx cargo and maintenance buildings and build new facilities on an empty field just outside of the airside fence. The O’Hare Modernization Program Construction Management team was placed in charge of the operation for full oversight of demolition and the new facility construction from start to finish. There were four buildings in total including: Vehicle Maintenance Building, Airplane Maintenance Building, FedEx Administration Building and The World Sort Center. In support of the relocation of the facilities, underground utility work was required. Two 12” fuel lines were installed, along with supporting infrastructure, from the existing Southwest Cargo fuel line feed to the new hydrant system on the new FedEx Ramp. Coordination with People’s Gas was required to run the service gas line from the main to the building meter.