Coping with Construction in Operational Airports: SFIA Case Study

Renovation projects are characterized by their complexity, especially when they interfere with a facility's ongoing operations. These operations constrain the performance of construction in a number of ways, including scheduling, cost, safety, security, quality, regulations, etc. Renovation of airports is often associated with challenging problems because airports are normally required to remain fully functional or minimally distributed during renovation. This paper addresses these challenges and outlines a new concept, called the “disturbance concept,” to developing a prototype decision support system aimed at minimizing the disturbance elements between a construction project and aircraft operations. This is done by adopting a total disturbance cost model through the integration of stochastic airport simulation and project management packages. The disturbance model is validated in a case study, a runway reconstruction at San Francisco International Airport (SIAF). Results indicate substantial savings in renovation and facility operations costs, show important trends and tradeoffs between cost and time, and yield useful recommendations to airport authorities, contractors, airlines, and air traffic control (ATC). Only the issues associated with the airside portion of airports are emphasized in this paper, but other portions such as the landside and ground access can be addressed using the same approach.