The design team for Pittsburgh International Airport’s planned 650,000-sq-ft new terminal had nearly reached the 60% design mark in March, and the owner was preparing to release preparatory enabling contracts.

Then came COVID-19.

乘客和收入暴跌,机场的ficials pressed pause on the design and set up four workshops over the next several weeks, recruiting public health experts from the local community of research and university entities, says airport spokeswoman Alyson Walls. “We decided to take the opportunity to really look at our design and everything that was happening in terms of new health standards, new realities of air travel and what that may look like in the future.”

詹斯勒的设计团队,HDR和路易斯·维达尔+ architects tapped HDR’s health care team to inform the shaping of a post-pandemic terminal. “We’re looking at how to take our biocontainment expertise in hospitals and research laboratories, including lessons learned, and apply it to potentially help the environment within an airport to minimize the transmission of disease pathogens,” says Chris Bormann, HDR’s East region health director.

Two of the workshops took place in April and May. “It’s a little early to come up with takeaways, but the purpose is to identify priorities,” says Walls. “What are some of the short-term things we can do to make changes? Everyone is looking at hold rooms, gate area layouts, the security checkpoint, ticket counters—common areas where people congregate. What can we look at beyond stickers on the floor and masks? That’s probably not going to be enough for the future.”

参与者正在评估更好地控制乘客通过终端的流动的技术，例如数字队列，该数字队列将涉及分配的时间，以经过安全，生物识别技术，热扫描和潜在的乘客与门口的乘客的潜在分离。团队中的建筑师路易斯·维达尔（Luis Vidal）表示，诸如紫外线，自然光，氧气流和交叉通风等元素都在起作用。

Pittsburgh airport’s situation, where it has the opportunity to design one of the first post-pandemic terminals, is not common, says Bill Peduzzi, HDR aviation director. “The majority of our clients are either in a static position where they have a facility to maintain or they have a limited ability to change it at the moment.”

Airport officials across the country are expediting current construction, pondering the fate of some planned projects and examining the implications in the short, medium and long term.

Gensler的负责人Ryan Fetters说，包括旧金山国际机场在内的全球几个机场已经参加了研讨会，以解决这些含义。

“SFO’s impression is this is like the day after 9/11, only it’s been ongoing for over two months now,” he says. “This is a paradigm shift for the industry. Right now, social distancing is straightforward since not many people are in the buildings, but what happens in the medium term when people start to fly again?”

他补充说：“现在是时候加倍同理心，以及我们如何与合作伙伴和客户合作以交付这些项目了。”18luck官网

早期到达

Sharp decreases in passenger traffic have allowed the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority to accelerate work on several construction projects, led by the $658.7-million Project Journey at Reagan National Airport, set for completion in 2021. Steel assembly is complete on both the new 14-gate, 225,000-sq-ft concourse and two new 50,000-sq-ft security checkpoint buildings. Utility work is progressing while glass and metal panels are being hung on the exterior.

Roger Natsuhara, MWAA’s senior vice president for engineering, says that recent months have seen a faster pace of construction, with overnight work shifted to daylight hours. “As we became aware of supply-chain issues in other sectors, we kept a close watch on material orders to ensure that deliveries continued without significant interruption,” Natsuhara adds.

Reduced aircraft activity has enabled MWAA to expedite installation of new hydrant fueling pits at Dulles International Airport, and runway and taxiway repairs at both airports.

展望未来，Natsuhara说，MWAA正在研究其完整的批准项目，以优先考虑那些应该向前迈进的项目，并确定他人的延期以保留资本。18luck官网

“Repair and maintenance projects may move forward because of the availability of the facilities, while improvement and expansion projects may be delayed because of the delayed need for the project,” Natsuhara says. “We work closely with the multiple stakeholders including our finance team in determining when a project should proceed.”

Similar examples abound at airports with major modernization programs, such as Salt Lake City International Airport. Its $4.1-billion program will now finish two years early with an estimated cost savings of $300 million.

But what are the implications for contracts and future construction? “For the better part of April, the focus for most of our members has been to review what’s necessary for a financial sustainable trajectory,” says Chris Oswald, senior vice president for safety and regulatory affairs with Airports Council International-North America. “In the next six to 18 months, all your sources of revenue for operations and maintenance have been gutted,” he says, and that affects what airports can take on in terms of new debt burdens for capital programs.

ACI-NA, with the Associated General Contractors of America and the Airport Consultants Council, is hosting a series of webinars in lieu of their annual construction summit, examining implications for construction contracts now and later.

“Obviously we’re all dealing with trying to keep projects going,” says Frank Giunta, partner and president with HKA, Americas region, who moderated the first webinar. “We also got into discussing concerns—is this force majeure? What did the contract say? Is the guaranteed maximum price invalidated due to a once-in-lifetime condition?”

Sources agree that it’s too early to fully address the long term, considering the uncertainties around the duration of the virus. “Right now the focus is on communication and coordination, and then contract issues,” says Giunta.

Seyfarth Shaw LLP的合伙人吉姆·纽兰德（Jim Newland）指出，大多数合同允许某些列举或非凡事件引起的施工延迟，但条款可能会有所不同。在公共项目上，一些州18luck官网排除了“无损害赔偿”条款，以防止承包商收回相关费用。18luck.cub但是，当他们可以执行时，“一般来说，业主可能会欠承包商的时间，但没有钱，”纽兰补充说。

奥斯瓦尔德说，需要更好的沟通，同时社会距离与机场世界朝着设计建造和建筑经理总承包商交付态度的趋势保持一致。“一个主要的收获是政党之间合作的需求和现实。”

By Aileen Cho, with Jim Parson