WASHINGTON, D.C. — At recent conferences, FAA associate administrator for airports D. Kirk Shaffer has been hitting hard on the need for diligence in preventing runway incursions, with an added emphasis on airports undergoing construction. He’s also retelling an incident that happened this year at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD), in which improper procedures by a contractor led to an emergency evacuation of a ground tower at one of the world’s busiest airports. As it happens, AIRPORT BUSINESS was at IAD that day to get insights from Marty Clarke, senior deputy manager of ops and airport construction coordinator, whose team is responsible for maintaining safe and ongoing operations during IAD’s reconstruction.
10 a.m.
The story angle is managing a very active airfield in the midst of what is probably the largest airport reconstruction project currently happening in North America. I’m on time for the interview; Marty Clarke, director of operations and the person responsible for ensuring everybody is in synch, arrives at 10:05, panting. We’re headed to a meeting of one of the project teams. His role: sit in and see where coordination with other activities fits in, and then make sure it happens.
* * *
10:15 a.m.
Five minutes after our arrival at the meeting, Marty’s cell rings. A minute later he tells the group that the ramp tower is down; infrastructure work in the basement has created toxic fumes that have migrated through venting upward to the tower, affecting controllers. We’re off to the airfield, and the tower.
Arriving at the scene, police, maintenance, and airport rescue and firefighting personnel are already there. Controllers are being tended to. Tower activities were immediately transferred to the recently constructed ramp tower which immediately took over ground activities. Following NIMS — National Incident Management System — procedures [the airport had just run its disaster drill exercise the weekend before], ‘fire’ is in control, due to the toxic fumes.
Interestingly, the Dulles ramp control tower, abutting the main terminal, lies directly above the main corridor for passenger flow past security to the gates. Thus, to ventilate the tower, a duct opening in the middle of the traffic flow merely exacerbates the situation.
Over the next two hours, the tower would be ventilated; controllers cared to; and press reports made to local media. In the middle of it all, Marty Clarke is talking with police, ARFF, maintenance, his public relations people, and air traffic control — the goal is to keep everybody communicating and airline operations moving.
* * *
Noon
Two hours later the incident is over and the tower is again active. As we head out to airside, Marty turns to me and says, “I guess you just saw what I do — on an airfield that’s totally under construction.”
The challenge
Dulles International is in the midst of a $4 billion development program that includes an underground automated people mover, the Aero Train, which will connect its historic main terminal to four remote concourses, and a future fifth concourse. The airport is a year into constructing a fourth runway, 9,400x150 feet, and has the environmental done on a fifth.
It is a hub of airliner activity, and a hub of construction activity. The two don’t necessarily mesh. There are some 500 airport employees on the premises, estimates Clarke, with the number of construction workers varying by project. All the underground tunnels for Aero Train are dug, he points out, which has seen worker numbers drop, but the individual stations at the terminals are a long way from complete.
And there is the fourth runway. Says Clarke, “With the weather good, the numbers of people working on the fourth runway is way up. They probably have 300 people working out there; it had been about 100.” The fourth runway project, adjacent to current airline operations, is a big focus.
“I was there this morning before the 10 o’clock meeting,” says Clarke. “to discuss the coordination of tying into a taxiway this summer. We’re actually going to close down the runway for three days; that affects air traffic. That information has to get out well in advance.”
There are other projects ongoing: the new tower; a 12-gate extension on the main terminal; a $17 million sewer expansion; among others. Clarke estimates there are some 20 projects “active” at present.
Creating a process
“Every project has a separate set of people doing the construction; a separate set of people doing the design; a separate set of people managing the whole thing on the airport’s behalf,” explains Kenneth W. Brammer, P.E., facility activation coordinator and an employee of Delta Airport Consultants.
Comments Clarke, “There are massive safety plans, and most of that is set up in the design process. There are safety measures set up in the design process that I will approach from an operational standpoint to set up the safety requirements.”
Clarke and Brammer connect to a project once it’s out of planning and into design, they explain. “We make sure that input from operations and maintenance, and future users, goes into the design,” says Brammer. “Then during construction we’re there to coordinate the day-to-day issues, which is a lot of Marty’s time.”
Clarke points to the 12-gate terminal extension project, scheduled to come online by January, as an example of ongoing planning. “Even though the concourse opening is months away,” he says, “we’re already meeting every other week to deal with activation issues.”
Every active project has a team that holds a progress meeting each week, according to Clarke. “They discuss schedules and hot issues; requests. What does each team need from us to keep its project moving?”
He cites an upcoming concrete pour of 2,000 cubic yards for an Aero Train station. The team has a six-hour window; otherwise it will disrupt United Airlines’ operations.
Says Clarke, “I have to coordinate with United to shut down their terminal from 11 p.m. to 4:15 in the morning. During that six-hour window, I will work with the different players and the mobile lounge [current people movers] people. We’re going to move the lounges to another terminal and walk the passengers over a bridge.”
Concerning United and the other carriers, Clarke says he spent 17 years with Northwest Airlines, including as station manager at Dulles, before joining the airport authority in 1992. “I have a bias of really keeping the airlines informed, which the airlines like. I know how airlines operate and the requirements they put on their local managers to keep their flights coming and going,” he says.
At the same time, he and his team are monitoring the construction teams. “We have to make sure they do what we tell them to do. We go out and inspect before we allow them to close something.”
A critical part of managing the airfield during such a mass of construction, says Clarke, is having contingency plans in place. “We train for emergencies,” he explains. “I knew that we had an alternate plan to evacuate the tower and bring the controllers over to the new tower. You have to put all that into play.”
Vehicles; security
Dulles installed a $1.2 million entrance gate at the south end of the airfield just for construction workers accessing the airfield. Security clearance procedures are mandated by the Transportation Security Administration. The airport has instituted its own vehicle tracking program, assigning a three-letter code to each vehicle, with stickers clearly visible, even on the roof. Dulles has four individuals responsible for monitoring the vehicle inspection program, says Clarke.
“If a construction vehicle is crossing a taxiway and cuts off an aircraft, the controllers can call down and say which pickup truck just cut off a Jetstream. One of our inspectors will respond immediately, if they’re not already out on the airfield, and then track down that vehicle. We will pull their badge, and they’re escorted off immediately. There is no second chance.”
For security, Clarke explains that there are employees on the airfield 24/7 monitoring compliance. The airport has its own police department, and TSA has its own group of inspectors continuously, he says.
