Airport Business_May-June_2021 - 23

FEATURE
This caused support infrastructure - such
as fuel lines, major storm and utility
lines, aircraft maintenance facilities,
firefighting facilities, support buildings
for ground equipment maintenance and
storage - to be relocated.
" While construction began on the
east side of the runway, in the early years,
2016, 2017, 2018, there was considerable
effort by both American and United
Airlines, which hub here at O'Hare, to
build new maintenance facilities, both
for their aircraft but also their ground
equipment. Together those airlines
have about 150 of our 191 gates, but
also considerable aircraft maintenance
and other support facilities, " Hoxie said.
ORD also worked with fuel
companies fuel companies to relocate
major fuel mains that connect to storage
facilities to the main terminal complex.
" We had to move tax iway
infrastructure. We built a deicing facility,
so there was a considerable amount of
work separate from just the runway that
took place in the 2017 to 2020 period, "
Hoxie continued.
Being under construction for 16 years
brings with it its own set of challenges.
Hoxie detailed that the first new runway
the city completed was 9L/27R, which
is used as an arrival-only runway and
required planes to be direct around
construction for Runway 9C-27C.
" But the reality is, all the aircraft
coming from that runway to their
gates in the terminal complex, plus
all of the movements that the airlines
have of planes from the terminals to
their hangers, all had to go through the
construction site for 9C-27C, " Hoxie
described. " So, the runway actually
had to get built in a dozen different little
discreet pieces along with the taxiway
network that accompanies it, so that we
could maintain operations on Runway
9R/27L as well as 9L/27R and all
while building in the middle of it while
keeping it operational. "
Planning and phasing work to
minimize disruptions to the airport's
operations was critical. A construction
implementation steer ing group
coordinated with stakeholders in the
project during inception and early
design phases. When construction
began, a working group and a day-to-day
coordination forum called Short Term
Operation Planning (STOP), met weekly.
" The STOP meeting every Monday
morning, you get every contractor that's
responsible for work, FAA, inspectors
and FAA navigational aid experts who
are delivering their own construction,
the air traffic control organization, our
own operations and safety and security
personnel, the construction manager,
everybody comes together to talk about
the work for the week, " Hoxie said. " Are
we going to do daytime closers for this
zone, nighttime closers in this area? Are
we going to have a utility change? Are
we going to have a configuration change?
What do we need to publish for charting
cycles?
" It's a pretty well-orchestrated
machine. "
" Making sure that we can run the
world's busiest airfield while delivering
the construction is not an easy feat, but
these forums have proven to be very,
very effective at isolating the needs of
construction from the needs of the dayto-day
operations. "
In addition to the runway projects,
ORD needed to build two new airport
traffic control towers in addition to its
existing one.
ORD now has towers in the north,
south and central parts of the airfield.
One final piece of the OMP remains,
the western extension of current Runway
9R/27L, which is under construction
and scheduled to be complete on Dec. 2.
Once completed, the airport's 16 straight
years of construction will be behind them
and ORD will reap the rewards of the
long work.
" It's a complete re-imagination
of both the size of O'Hare and the
configuration of the airfield. And to
think that that was done on an airport
that had anywhere from 800,000 to
930,000 annual flights, every single year
during that reconfiguration is really a
point of pride for the city of Chicago, "
said Hoxie.
" It's really truly once in a generational
opportunity to build and enhance our
airport from an airfield safety and
security and capacity all the way to
the terminal buildings, " added Rhee.
" Really highlighting the journey from
curb to gate and making sure that we do
everything that we can to make people
want to fly through Chicago, because
we certainly think that not only do we
fight constantly for that world's busiest
but the world's best, and we want to be
known for that as well. " 
MAY/JUNE 2021 \ AVIATIONPROS.COM / 23
PHOTO COURTESY ORD
http://www.AVIATIONPROS.COM
Airport Business_May-June_2021

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