The Evolution of the Planner's Role During the Course of a Capital Improvement Program

When airport owners and operators embark on a capital improvement program, they often assume the planning decisions have been made and no further involvement is needed by the planners. But completion of a master plan marks only the first chapter, not the end of an airport planner's participation in a capital improvement program. There will be planning of one sort or another from the time the first design workscope is prepared to the time the ribbon is cut on the final facility in the program. Rather than end, a planner's role metamorphoses as acapital improvement program moves forward. Emphasis is placed less on visionary thinking and more on coordination and facilitation. In addition, planning is a continuing process affected by sometimes abrupt shifts in marketing strategies or regulatory changes that often will not conveniently wait for a capital improvement program to be completed. A planner must anticipate problems and propose and implement solutions. In any capital improvement program, somebody does the planning. The responsibility may fall to the owner (or airport authority), the program manager, or in the case of improvement programs with separate design and construction management teams, either the design manager or construction manager. In Washington, D.C., where the Capital Development Program(CDP) for both Reagan National and Washington Dulles International Airports has entered its twelfth year and provided almost $2 billion in new facilities, both the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (the Authority) and the Parsons Management Consultants(PMC) team have planning staffs whose involvement began with the development of the program and has continued throughout design, construction and start of operations.