Terminal

In June, MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah cut the ribbon on a new and expanded passenger terminal.

Holland Construction Services served as construction manager, HOK as architect and Crawford, Murphy & Tilly, as engineering consultant for the $31 million, 43,000-square-foot project that nearly doubles the size of the existing 51,000-square-foot terminal. The project represents completion of phase three of a multiphase expansion.

Construction crews built a temporary partition between the existing and new terminals and an access road to divert all construction activities and separate work from 24/7 airport traffic. Working around 150-foot crane height limits set forth by the Federal Aviation Administration and special permitting to utilize a crane within yards of the runway were necessary.

Technology and security improvements are a big part of the terminal expansion. One of the more interesting features is a new exit lane breach control device, manufactured by Dormakaba, which serves as the dedicated exit for passengers from the secured area of the terminal. The one-way exit corridor guides the flow of arriving passengers, allowing for fast and safe passage.

When the expansion project began three years ago in the winter of 2020, material shortages were rampant. While waiting for roof materials to arrive, it was necessary to install a temporary roof and purchase heavy tarps to enclose the building from the elements to keep the project moving. Some 70 percent of the terminal building façade is glass.

A separate project with St. Clair County included renovations to the existing terminal and employee parking lot.

Taxiway Bridge

Also in June, Plocher Construction Company continued leading the effort to build a new Taxiway Lima Bridge over Crooked Creek at MidAmerica St. Louis Airport as part of a taxiway extension project. Crawford, Murphy & Tilly is the engineering consultant with HNTB as a subconsultant on the bridge design.
The $37.5 million project is adding nearly 3,100 linear feet and a taxiway bridge to initially serve the new 34-acre, $200 million Boeing Production Facility but was designed to accommodate up to 200 acres of future aviation development in this quadrant of the airport. The work, which began in April 2022, wrapped up in late summer and is providing airfield access to Boeing.

Project components include construction of the Airside Service Road, installation of new perimeter fencing and gates, drainage improvements, installation of new edge lights and related electrical improvements to the taxiway and roadway, seeding, sodding, mulching and other erosion control measures.

Structural engineering requirements were significant in constructing a bridge capable of carrying 767 airplanes. The taxiway bridge is built out of precast concrete beams. In contrast with highway bridge beams that are spaced four to five feet apart from center to center due to the structural loading, the edge-to-edge distance from flange to flange was a mere eight inches.