In Business Las Vegas, May 18th, 2007
McCarran International Airport's new terminal building will be a half-mile long, have a two-story security check point and enough parking for nearly 6,000 vehicles, architects for the $1.8 billion project say.
Once the new terminal is in place in 2011, passengers will have to reconsider where they'll need to go to check in for a flight since the new terminal is expected to handle flights heading for international destinations as well as those leaving from the 30 D gates. The D gates currently are the newest flight portals at the airport and are accessed via a tram that is elevated when it leaves the main terminal, but underground when it arrives at the gate area.
Representatives of PGAL LLC, the architecture and engineering company contracted to design the new Terminal 3, offered a first look at the building they say will have enough flexibility to accommodate wide-body jets arriving from international or domestic destinations.
"It will offer a great amount of flexibility for McCarran," said
Kenneth
Brown, executive vice president
of PGAL in
Las Vegas
. "If there's a lot of growth internationally, they'll be able to handle it. If it's domestic growth, they'll be able to handle it."
For PGAL, work began in mid-2005.
The Terminal 3 site is located along what is now Russell Road, east of the existing Terminal 1. Utility lines are being relocated and Russell Road will be re-routed to the north of its existing right-of-way to accommodate the new terminal, which will have 14 gates. While preliminary work already is under way, construction of the terminal is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year.
PGAL has developed a model of the new terminal as well as a series of drawings and renderings of the new project. Building materials have been selected and interior designs have been chosen.
Some of the materials aren't cheap — some land-side portions of the building are being designed with blast-hardened materials to comply with new airport security specifications protecting passengers from potential terrorists.
Interior designs will include gold and silver colors and multiple colors of terrazzo flooring will be used. Easily maintained, durable materials have been chosen for the terminal's public areas and fixtures.
Brown
and
principal
David
Moss
said the building would incorporate natural lighting features and most of the open space within the terminal will be column free.
An eight-story parking garage is part of the terminal plan. The garage will be linked to the terminal with pedestrian bridges. A sophisticated circulation system will route traffic off Russell Road into the terminal area and access will be direct through a currently unused central bore of the airport tunnel access from Interstate 215.
Architects also are designing right-of-way to accommodate the Las Vegas Monorail, which is planning a station at the new terminal as well as at Terminal 1.
Currently, the 2 million-square-foot terminal is gearing for six international gates as well as federal inspection services facilities to process arriving international passengers.
Under existing plans, the 14 Terminal 3 gates would be able to accommodate any of the existing jumbo jets in today's airline fleets. Some gates are expected to be equipped with dual boarding bridges so that passengers could enter a plane through two doors simultaneously. Existing McCarran bridges have single corridors and can only load through one door.
Brown
said Boeing's new 787 "Dreamliner" jet under development would fit in the Terminal 3 gates. But the new gates aren't being equipped for the new Airbus A380 double-deck jets, which would load from two bridge levels.
McCarran officials have said they're not looking to retrofit for the A380, which also would create wing clearance safety problems at other parts of the airport.
Randy
Walker, director
of the Clark County Department of Aviation
, has said a new airport south of
Las Vegas
in the Ivanpah Valley would be designed to accommodate the A380 if an airline chose to route one to
Las Vegas
.
Because of the prospect that the Ivanpah airport could ultimately be the primary airport for large long-haul jets, the Terminal 3 gates are being developed so that two or three additional gates could be inserted along the half-mile length of the building, another example of the flexibility the architects are building into the building.
And because McCarran already has common-use terminal equipment technology in place throughout the airport, it's easy to add gate space for airlines with large numbers of planes coming in at one time.
Because the new terminal also will serve airlines using the D gates, there will be a two-level security checkpoint manned by Transportation Security Administration agents. The upper level will be dedicated to passengers using the 14 gates at Terminal 3; the lower level will lead to an underground tram station that will shuttle passengers to the D gates.
Company executives have high praise for
Walker
and his McCarran team.
"It's the best group we've ever worked with,"
Brown
said. "They have real expertise and great business sense. They know what they want but they're also good listeners. They have an expectation that this airport and this terminal is going to be the best."
PGAL executives say there's also a high level of interest from other airports about what's happening at McCarran because of its track record of success.
Jeffrey
Gerber, the president and chief executive
of PGAL, said the airport project is easily the costliest of any undertaken by the local office. The firm has produced more than 4,100 drawings for the project and has worked with more than 20 consultants on specialized areas.
Privately held PGAL has had double-digit percentage growth in
Las Vegas
since the
Houston
-based company entered the Southern Nevada
market in 2001. Nationwide, the company has 211 employees in nine offices. Locally, there are eight architects. The company said that it is the only firm in Southern Nevada
with a staff of architects and civil engineers in the same office.
Previous local projects included the F-22 munitions facility at Nellis Air Force Base, the Meadows Hospital and Medical Office in North Las Vegas
, the Carmichael Professional Plaza, Streamline Tower and the Boca Raton Condominiums at Palm Beach Resort. Currently, the firm also is working on the UNLV Advanced Dental Education Building and a 1,000-room remodeling at the Excalibur.
