It’s finally time to say farewell to the old terminal, as demolition is scheduled to begin Monday, April 15. Many people have been asking, “when it will come down, what is taking so long?” Tearing down this structure which houses the Building Maintenance Division in the basement is delicate work. Workers are wrapping up the final stages of the interior demolition. This consisted of asbestos mitigation, electrical relocation, mechanical work, and East Data Center relocation. Servers, hardware, conduit, and fiber from the East Data Center are all being transferred from the old terminal building to another secured site on airport property.
Demolition Components
The old building consists of two components: the main terminal and the concourse. Demolition of the East and West concourses was completed at the tail end of the new terminal project. Still remaining is the main terminal building which included the ticketing, baggage claim, retail food and beverage, security and rental car counters.
The section with the ticketing wing will remain and will be renovated to house Airport Operations, storage of airport vehicles and serve utility functions.
Conco Construction was competitively selected and contracted as the general contractor to complete the demolition. Bradburn Wrecking & Demolition Co. was selected to do the demolition along with several sub-contractors.
Bradburn will begin the demo on the southeast end of the structure, using demolition equipment such as wrecking ball, track hoe, and front-end loaders to knock down and remove the old structures.
Timeline
Conco Construction and its demolition subcontractor will begin to remove and haul away the old building structure and residual hardware systems. This process is expected to take roughly six months. In mid-to-late August, we will begin what is called back-filling. This process will ultimately fill the hole in the ground that will be left over once the structure is gone. Dirt and fill material will be compacted to bring it back up to grade level. When this part is complete, there will be some paving, sidewalks, grass and a new security fence around the perimeter. Total cost of the entire project is $8.8 million and is funded with airport revenue.
What’s Next?
So, what’s next, and what does the future hold? As of right now, there are no plans for immediate development. The new terminal was built for modular expansion. Although we only have 11 of 12 total gates occupied at this time, those 12 gates will not be sufficient to meet the long-term travel demand. At some point in the future, the building will likely be expanded to the southeast (towards the old terminal demo site.) Our hope is for continued growth and expansion of the new terminal which will take place in the direction of the vacant land that will be survived by the old facility.
