Blast
Resistant Design to Protect Airport Terminal
Killeen Airport terminal is among the first to be designed after September 11, 2001
By D.Ann Slayton Shiffler
Built with approximately 1,000 tons of structural steel and
9,500 cubic yards of concrete, the new Ted C. Connell Terminal
Building at Gray Army Airfield in Killeen will be among the
first airport terminals in the country designed to be blast
resistant. The building was engineered to withstand a bomb
blast from the parking lot.
The $30 million facility will also feature a "resolution
room," hardened space within the terminal building that
was designed to be used to detonate any explosive devices
found during the luggage screening process.
Among the first airport terminals to be designed after the
terrorist attacks of September 11th, the facility features
a number of other interesting design attributes. A joint project
of the City of Killeen and the Fort Hood military base, the
airport will be one of the few joint-use public/military airports
in the country.
Carter & Burgess' Fort Worth office, the architect and
engineer on the project, finished an enormous amount of design,
redesign and engineering work prior to ground breaking. Austin's
Constructors & Associates Inc. began construction of the
terminal building in January 2002.
As a result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the terminal's
design was totally reexamined. In fact, the design process
was about 80 percent complete when the terrorist attacks took
place. The Carter & Burgess design team reworked the design
to meet a number of criteria, specifically being able to deal
with a bomb blast and related terrorist threats.
"There was a major redesign effort on the building after
the September 11th attacks," said Jeff Toner, program
manager for the project for Carter & Burgess. "We
were concerned about many things, like how far the parking
lot could be from the terminal building.
"We did blast analysis to determine how it (the terminal
building) would withstand bomb blasts at different distances."
The blast data allowed the design team to identify how much
to reinforce the building.
"We needed to build a building that wouldn't have a catastrophic
collapse," says Toner. "Once we had the results
from our analysis, we realized we would need bigger structural
steel members. We are using a lot of precast concrete to harden
the building. The glass used on the exterior of the building
is blast resistant to mitigate the effects of a blast for
people inside."
Constructing this building has required an inordinate amount
of teamwork between not only the construction teams but also
the City of Killeen, which is considered the developer, and
with the military, which is considered the owner.
The city of Killeen entered into a lease with Fort Hood for
the terminal which will serve as a passenger commercial airport.
A joint management board was formed between the city, the
military and the construction teams to assure that the construction
effort runs seamlessly.
Bob Albanese, president of Constructors and Associates, said
that teamwork has been critical because of all the sensitive
entities involved.
"There's much more security on the site," he says.
"Because the military monitors our security systems,
there is some additional infrastructure. There are additional
cameras and security processes. We want to be a good neighbor
to the military and we have worked with them as best we could."
Scott Lewis, project manager for Constructors, said the job
has been progressing quite well, even though the security
level is higher than that at most jobs.
"We heave security fences that separate us from the military
and we do have work that is on the military side of the fence,"
says Lewis. "We have security badges for all our workers
and we have to provide the names of the individuals who will
be on the military property. We have a guard at the entrance
to the gate. It's not a come as you please site."
The three-story structure will comprise about 83,000 square
feet. All three stories are above ground, with the first floor
as a baggage handling area. The building's electrical and
communications rooms will also be located on the first floor.
The second floor is a food court and also includes the main
concourses for aircraft boarding with four gates and room
for expansion. With just 5,000 square feet of space for administrative
offices, the third floor has a smaller footprint than the
second and first floors.
The site was already cleared when Lewis' crews arrived. Primary
water lines and utilities were in place as well. The building
is structural steel with pre-cast concrete skin. The foundation
was poured slab on grade beams over drilled piers.
"We are about 80 percent complete with structural steel
erection and about 30 percent complete with precast erection
and we have started all of the mechanical, electrical and
plumbing rough in work," says Lewis in mid September.
"We've completed all the blast window design and fabrication
is starting on that."
Stone veneer panels will be installed over some of the precast
panels in the building.
The design features an impressive barrel vaulted roof.
At this point, Lewis said the project has not had any delays,
although there have been some design changes. The building
is on target to be completed by the third quarter of 2004.
"We've had some changes in scope to deal with,"
he said. "But I don't think these things will affect
our completion date."
By mid September, Lewis said that there were between 80 to
110 workers on site on a given day, depending on the various
stages of construction.
"We probably will be getting up to 200 to 250 workers
when the finishes start going in the building," Lewis
says.
Aside from the contract to construct the terminal building,
Constructors and Associates will also be building the apron
and taxi way as well as the land side improvements around
the airport as well as the parking areas, maintenance, fueling
areas, rental car areas and storm water retention areas.
A licensed architect, Lewis said the building's design is
quite impressive, as are the blast resistant materials.
The structure is a lot heaver than it normally would have
been," he says. "The precast panels are very thick.
The window glazing and frames and glass itself are all structural.
The glass in some areas is over an inch thick and it's double
glazed. All of the mechanical, electrical and equipment and
ceilings have additional bracing that goes into them so that
they wouldn't fall in the event of a bomb blast.
"It's almost a true bomb shelter," he continues.
"I know where I'm going if we have a disaster."
The "resolution room" within the terminal was designed
for "suspect" materials that might be discovered
during the baggage scanning process.
"It's a concrete room with an 18 inch thick wall and
a blast door," Lewis says. "It's basically designed
specifically for a piece of luggage with a bomb in it."
For the most part, Toner said the extreme blast analysis efforts
that went into the eventual design of the building was so
that they could get the parking areas as close to the building
as possible.
"When airports go to heightened security they lose a
lot of their parking facilities," he explained. "We
didn't want it to happen that when the terminal opened the
government would then say 'guess what, you can't use the parking
in front of the building.' Parking is a big source of revenue.
We just wanted to be proactive in our deign and provide a
higher level of safety for the traveling public."
While Carter & Burgess has had experience designing blast
resistant buildings for the military, this project was different
because in most cases the military will provide the exact
criteria.
In some cases, seismic materials and designs were replicated
because there is so little true bomb blast design criteria.
Albanese is very impressed with the level of cooperation that
his company has experienced with this project.
"One of the great things is it is truly a joint effort,"
he said. "We're working with the city of Killeen, the
FAA, TXDOT, Carter & Burgess and all the sub contractors.
The FAA provided most of the funding for the project. The
military provided the land. It was a joint effort on a lot
of different agencies to make this project happen. The cooperation
is remarkable."
He said his company was very proud to get this job, which
has been very high profile and very interesting to construct.
"Constructors was very pleased and excited to win this
project from the City of Killeen," he says. "The aviation
sector is one of importance to our company and we intend to
pursue many other projects similar to the Ted C. Connell Terminal
Building. The City of Killeen representatives, as well as the
architectural and engineering team of Carter Burgess, have been
excellent to work with thus far. Although this project was awarded
to us on a "low bid" basis, we believe the "team
building" concept is the approach all parties are engaged
in. We look upon the City of Killeen as a Client and will keep
that attitude throughout the duration of the project."
| PROJECT
TEAM |
| GENERAL
CONTRACTOR: |
Constructors and Associates |
| ARCHITECT/DESIGN: |
Carter & Burgess,
Transportation Program Group, Aviation Group, Fort Worth |
| OWNER: |
City of Kileen; U.S.
Army, Fort Hood |
| OTHER
SUBS |
| Mechanical
& Plumbing |
Airco Mechanical, Austin,
TX |
| Structural
Steel |
Alamo Steel Co., Waco,
TX |
| Sealants
& Waterproofing |
Armor Sealants &
Firestopping, Round Rock, TX |
| Exterior
& Interior Signage |
Austin Architectural
Graphics, Austin, TX |
| Fire
Proofing |
Bahl Fireproofing, Round
Rock, TX |
| Precast
Concrete Erection & Steel Erection |
Bosworth Steel Erectors,
Dallas, TX |
| Cast-in-Place
Concrete |
C.J.'s Concrete Construction,
Gatesville, TX |
| Standing
seam Roof & TPO Roof |
CEI Roofing, Inc., Dallas,
TX |
| Exterior
Aluminum Sunscreens & Interior Aluminum Canopies |
Childress Metals, Arlington,
TX |
| Millwork |
D3, Inc., , Lorian,
OH |
Passenger
Boarding Bridges |
DEW Engineering &
Development Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
| Fire
Sprinkler System |
Honeycutt Fire Systems,
Pflugerville, TX |
| Doors
& Hardware |
Horizon Hardware, Austin,
TX |
| Electrical |
Jo Luis Corporation,
Killeen, TX |
| Metal
Studs, Drywall & Acoustical Ceilings |
Lasco Drywall, Round
Rock, TX |
| Baggage
Handling System |
Logan Fabricom, Inc.,
Louisville, KY |
| Architectural
Precast Concrete |
Meridian Precast &
Granite, Inc., Waco, TX |
| Architectural
Louvers & Walk-off Mats |
Metroplex Architectural
Products, Dallas, TX |
| Landscaping
& Irrigation |
Muhl Landscaping, Waco,
TX |
| Terrazzo |
National Terrazo Tile
& Marble, Inc. Houston, TX |
| Fall
Protection |
Pro-Bel, , Ajax, Ontario,
Canada |
| Masonry |
Quality Brickworks,
Waco, TX |
| Elevators
& Escalators |
Schindler Elevator,
Austin, TX |
| Earthwork |
Shallow Ford, Temple,
TX |
| Site
Utilities |
Shelton & Shelton
Plumbing, Killeen, TX |
| Mufids/Bids |
Com-Net, , Miamisburg,
OH |
| Painting |
Systems Painters, New
Ulm, TX |
| Glass
& Glazing |
Tepco Contract Glazing,
Inc., Dallas, TX |
| Kitchen
Equipment |
Trinity Restaurant Equipment,
Arlington, TX |
| LANDSIDE
IMPROVEMENTS & STRIPING |
| Pre-Engineered
Buildings |
Aycock Construction,
Inc., Harker Heights, TX |
|
Cast-in-Place Concrete |
C.J.'s Concrete Construction,
Gatesville, TX |
| Electrical |
Jo Luis Corporation
(Electrical), Killeen, TX |
| Earthwork |
Shallow Ford (Earthwork),
Temple, TX |
| Site
Utilities & Plumbing |
Shelton & Shelton
Plumbing, Killeen, TX |
| Fuel
Storage Systems |
Unified Services of
Texas, Inc. San Antonio, TX |
| Parking
Control Systems |
Vehicle Access Control,
Inc., Dallas, TX |
|
Asphalt Paving
|
Wheeler Coatings Asphalt,
Inc. Round Rock, TX |
|
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