With the United States preparing to host both the 2026 FIFA World Cup and the 2028 Olympics
Games, Los Angeles International Airport is undergoing one of the largest public work
programs in Californian history.
With new and improved terminals, world-class facilities and a long-awaited connection to
the city’s public transportation network - this is LA’s USD $14BN airport upgrade.
From its origins as an unpaved landing strip in the 1920s, LAX has grown into one of the
world’s largest aviation hubs - welcoming 88 million passengers and seeing some 690,000
aircraft movements in 2019 alone.
But while the airport has consistently ranked among the world’s busiest, it’s also infamous
for poor passenger experience and extreme traffic congestion.
Passenger numbers have more than doubled since the hub’s last major upgrade ahead of the
1984 Olympics and, then-eyeing a new bid for the Games, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA)
embarked on a 21st-century overhaul.
Though upgrades to runways and operating systems form a large part of the project, the most
noticeable changes for passengers will be updates to each terminal; increasing aircraft
capacity and improving traveller experience.
The USD $1.9BN redevelopment of the Tom Bradley International Terminal is the clearest example
to date.
With the terminal and concourses rebuilt from scratch, the project added 116,000 square
metres of space and 18 new gates; 9 of which can accommodate wide-bodied aircraft like the A380.
The terminal will be joined by a USD $1.6BN
new Midfield Satellite Concourse in 2020.
To accommodate projected growth, an 11-gate concourse alongside Terminal 1 and a new 12-gate
Terminal 9 are already underway and set to be operational by 2028.
While the growth of LAX has put pressure on existing facilities for years, it is the congestion
in and around the airport which is the biggest headache for travellers.
With LAX lacking connections to other forms of transport, the only way to reach the terminals
is via the notorious “LAX horseshoe” - a 1.6-kilometre airport loop that often takes
over an hour to drive around in peak times.
The USD $5.5BN Landside Access Modernization Program (LAMP) was
designed to cut traffic in the airport’s core.
At the heart of LAMP is the 3.6-kilometre Automated People Mover (APM) which will connect
the airport’s terminals to new consolidated parking and rent-a-car facilities and give
LAX a long-awaited connection to the Los Angeles Metro.
Operating 24-hours a day with six stations along its route, the APM will allow passengers
to seamlessly transfer from the metro to their desired terminal in under 10 minutes - and
is expected to carry 30 million people each year.
Co-ordinating and building a project of this scale - while keeping one of the world’s
busiest airports open - is an extreme task that demands digital collaboration.
With designers and engineers from 12 different trades working on over 180 design models across
33 offices in 22 cities and five different time zones - the expert team turned to Autodesk’s
BIM 360 platform.
Using BIM 360 Model Co-ordination, the team is able to access information about the project
from anywhere in the world, at any time of day.
Sharing their models and federating them in Autodesk BIM 360, designers used the software’s
automatic clash detection features to identify errors, track and address them, before works
were undertaken for real on-site - avoiding expensive mistakes, saving time and reducing risk.
Giving the whole team access to see and understand the project digitally, in three-dimensional
form, from anywhere in the world before construction has been critical to the AMP progressing on
time and within budget.
The teams on site are issued with high quality construction issue information and can effectively
build it right, first time.
From upgrading runways and expanding terminals, to the addition of much-needed transport infrastructure
- all while keeping the airport operational - it’s easy to see how the upgrade at LAX
is the largest public project in the city’s history.
As work continues in the run-up to 2028, regular travellers are set to see one of America’s
most notorious airports cruise at new heights in the years ahead.
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