Everything is big in Texas. The Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, always the epitome of big, is now getting bigger. In its effort to remain the most important transportation hub in the south central United States, DFW is investing $2.7 billion over 5 years, with project completion scheduled for 2005. There are several major elements to what it has dubbed the Capital Development Program; of most interest from a concrete viewpoint are the new International Terminal D and the new Automated People Mover.

Started in 1999, this job was well underway when the tragedy of 9/11 caused a re-examination of the project. But, unlike what happened with many U.S. airport projects, DFW did not change its plans. "We took a long-term view and held the course," says Mark Skjervem, Terminal D managing executive. "DFW was committed to the effort, so we kept going."

Terminal D--Joining existing terminals A, B, C, and E, the new Terminal D will allow DFW to consolidate all international travel into one terminal. The security system here can handle 2800 passengers an hour, 37,000 passengers per day. The project was already under construction on 9/11, but security concerns resulted in some reconfiguration that ended up adding about 3 months to the schedule. Mostly this was a result of design changes made to create greater building resilience in case of blasts from car bombs.

Although the terminal is a steel-frame structure with a stainless steel roof, its concrete decks are topped with terrazzo. The 12-story Hyatt hotel that is structurally integral with the terminal building is structural concrete with a glass facade. Originally designed as a post-tensioned structure, the reinforcement was switched to conventional steel in the aftermath of 9/11.

The connected parking structure is one of the world's largest, with 8100 parking spaces and a "Smart Technology System" to lead parkers directly to empty spaces. For the standard post-tensioned post-and-beam structure, the concrete mix was developed to get up to post-tensioning strength within 2 days. This was confirmed with cylinder breaks and verified with maturity meters; the forms were stripped after 3 days.

Concrete was mixed onsite by Hanson and poured every work day for two years, with adjustments made for weather. During the summer, pours were made at 1:00 a.m. although the concrete didn't get as hot as it might have because the distance from the onsite plant was short. Hanson did use some ice in the summer and some hot water in winter. "Hanson's QC program kept the concrete where we needed it to be," says Bill Wallace, project superintendent, Austin Commercial-Terminal D Project. "And those maturity meters gave us the confidence to start pulling the post-tensioning cables after two days."

Automated People Mover--Nearly 70% of travelers coming into DFW are on connecting flights, so moving people efficiently around the airport is a prime objective. When DFW was built in 1974, it had a state-of-the-art people mover, but over the years that system became outmoded. The new Skylink Automated People Mover (APM) will start operating in February 2005, and the old people mover will be demolished.

The new APM is located mostly (80%) on the secure side of the airport, as is all access--all riders will be ticketed passengers who have already gone through security. This means also that most construction took place in secure areas. Equipment, workers, and materials were moved onto the site through two primary security access points. "Due to excellent coordination and communication with security and airline personnel," says Perfecto Solis, DFW as sistant vice president for project development, "this created very few problems."

The first step in building the APM was a $44 million project to modify the jetways and create a right-of-way corridor near the gates; nearly 80% of gates were affected. But construction was not allowed to disrupt airport operations, so most work had to be done at night. At about 10:00 p.m. the airlines would move all equipment out of the way, and the construction crews would move in; at 5:00 a.m. the contractor would clear out, and the airport operations would move back in. "At night it looked like a shipyard," says Soils.