Airport Business - 31

COVER STORY
through legacy gateway facilities in the
southeast and truck to the South Carolina
market, but airport leaders discovered
they would rather use GSP.
"It was closer to their facilities, so the
final mile was shorter," he said. "The
product could be loaded and unloaded
faster at GSP than at more crowded
gateways and they got a better price."
GSP's old cargo facility was unable
to handle multiple days per week of
operation. It was located on a congested
apron area on the south end of the
terminal apron. The new facility is
located on the north end, so it segregates
cargo and passenger operations.
The new facility has a higher
clearance height, allowing airport staff
to break down freight more easily.
GSP used a design-build delivery
method for the cargo facility, working
with Haskell Engineering. Design took
about four months and construction
lasted about a year. Design-build gave
certainty on price and schedule.

"It was a good project for us, GSP
and the community," Howell said. "The
apron is large enough to hold three widebody 747-800s at one time. Within the
first few weeks, we had all three positions
full for several days. Previously where
GSP had to turn away business, we're
not having to do that now."
Gregory Kershaw PE, of WK
Kershaw, which was the consultant
on the ramp, said there is space to add
another three parking spaces on the south
side of the taxiway for the ramp.
Planners were constrained by space
on both the north and south of the new
facility. They had to install a dry pond
designed for the ultimate buildout.
"If the airport ever wants to come
back and expand the next three spaces
to the south, the pond is already at a
capacity to handle the additional storm
runoff from that added impervious area,"
he said. "It's a rather large pond, but we
wanted to make sure it wasn't impacted
or in the way."

A fully loaded 747-800 has a takeoff
weight of almost 1 million pounds. The
pavement area consists of 19 inches of
concrete on top of a 6-inch cementtreated base. It took about four months
to finish.
Howell said GSP is working with its
partners to continue diversifying cargo
on f lights as they look to increase the
number of flights coming in. It saw an
increase in cargo in March.
"There's a lot of industry and
manufacturers looking to move product
over to the freighters now that the belly
capacity has dried up," he said. "It will
be interesting to see how we come out of
this and if it will be a long-term impact
to the market."
Howell said airports must know their
market to build the right cargo facility.
Understand your strengths and use them.
"You got to make sure you're not
overbuilding or underbuilding your
facility," he said. 

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Airport Business

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Airport Business
