May 4—Once nothing more than a sketch on a dinner napkin, Pittsburgh International Airport's $1.4 billion modernization is rolling down the runway toward completion.
With a topping out ceremony Thursday, the new landside terminal is just over 40% finished, with much of the steel structure in place and work inside to start by the end of the year.
Airport officials, local politicians and other dignitaries celebrated the progress by signing the final steel beam, one fabricated in Ambridge, to be set into place at the top of the terminal's roof this summer.
The landside building is the key feature of the modernization, one that also includes the construction of a massive 5,000-space parking garage and a new road system into and out of the complex.
It is being built between the C and D concourses of Pittsburgh International's airside terminal — a concept mapped out on a napkin during a late evening dinner airport CEO Christina Cassotis had with some colleagues after being hired.
Some eight years later, that idea has moved from paper to production.
"This is a reality," Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald told those assembled for the tipping out ceremony.
Indeed, work is in full swing, with six big cranes competing for attention with the jets taking off from nearby runways.
With most of the structural steel work nearing its end, officials hope to start on the building envelope this fall, with interior construction set to begin by the start of the new year.
Piers are in place for a 1,200-foot-long span — longer than the Fort Pitt Bridge — that is part of the terminal's new roadway system.
Paul Hoback, the airport's chief development officer, said some roads will be finished by the fall, allowing deliveries to be made right to the new terminal's doorstep as work takes place.
"For the most part, it will be done enough so that we can start using those roadway systems to bring materials in and out," Mr. Hoback said.
However, the main entrance and exit roads to and from the terminal to be used by travelers won't be finished until August 2024. He said the garage — with 3,300 spaces for the public and others for rental cars — is about one-sixth complete at this point.
The new landside building is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2025, after the busy holiday travel season.
"You can't open during all the holidays and the rush of traffic you have around that time. We were always targeting the February or March time frame because that's when the traffic falls down enough where it makes sense to make such a significant opening," Mr. Hoback said.
Despite the pandemic, supply chain issues leading to higher material costs, and inflation, Mr. Hoback insisted that the $1.4 billion project is still within budget. One reason is that the county's airport authority, which oversees Pittsburgh International, bid some of the projects early to avoid long lead times, he said.
The authority also has had to rebid some work to stay within budget. But that, Mr. Hoback said, is not unusual for a complex as large as the one the airport is building.
"We've been able to maintain the initial vision, and we're really proud of that," he said, adding that early planning has helped mitigate some of the risks.
At the same time, the authority is "watching our contingency [budget] very closely" in the event of overruns, he said.
While there have been some "overages" so far, the authority is still managing to control spending to stay within the budget, Ms. Cassotis added.
The airport is paying for one extra — a $7 million connector bridge that will take travelers from the new landside terminal into the airside building where they board and get off planes. The connector is meant to replicate the dramatic entrance into Downtown from the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
"That was not part of the original design. Because we made that change after construction had started, obviously, it was going to cost us more than if we had designed it in from the beginning," Ms. Cassotis said.
She said that Pittsburgh International airlines, paying the bulk of the cost for the modernization, won't have to chip in for that add-on. The connector bridge will be part of the new three-floor terminal's top level, which will be used by departing passengers for ticketing and to go through security.
Arriving passengers will use the second level to leave the airside building and to retrieve their checked bags. The bottom level will be used mainly for behind-the-scenes equipment, including baggage machinery, although a portion will be devoted to ground transportation.
With the new terminal's opening, the landside building now used for ticketing, security and baggage claim will be either demolished or repurposed. And the shuttle that now hauls travelers and from the landside and airside buildings will be discontinued.
Airport officials estimate that the project is generating nearly 14,300 direct and indirect jobs and contributing $2.5 billion in economic activity to the region. Local companies are producing about 90% of materials and services.
That includes the steel beams, which are being fabricated by Ambridge-based Sippel Steel, and the precast concrete for the parking garage, which is being manufactured by Youngwood-based Sidley Precast.
Ms. Cassotis, who was hired in 2015 to oversee the airport and bring in more flights, said she is amazed at the construction progress.
"I'm fascinated at how it all comes together and I like being out there seeing it happen. It's gone fast," she said.
State Rep. Valerie Gaydos, R- Moon, said the new terminal is "being built by Pittsburghers for Pittsburghers."
She remembers flying out of the old airport terminal in Moon and the current terminal, which many locals still refer to as the "new airport."
Now, she said, she'll have a chance to do the same at "the new, new" airport.
"This is going to be fabulous," she said.
Mark Belko: [email protected]
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