Project Profile
By Aspire Staff Spring 2022
The Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX) is poised to see a significant increase in the number of travelers using the facility in the coming years. According to the City of Phoenix Aviation Department, 2019 was a record year for PHX, with just shy of 46.3 million passengers traveling through the airport. This was a 5% increase over the nearly 44 million passengers using the PHX facility just two years prior, in 2017.
To handle the increasing volume of PHX travelers, the City of Phoenix has undertaken a nearly $2 billion capital investment program to expand and improve airport services. A major part of this program is the Stage 2 project to build a 2.2-mile extension of the Phoenix Sky Train from Terminal 3 to the Rental Car Center. This extension will provide a direct link for passengers between the airport and the Rental Car Center. The trains will depart every 3 to 5 minutes with a travel time of 8 minutes to and from the terminals, providing a significant improvement to the current shuttle bus system, which can require up to 30 minutes of wait and travel time.
Construction is ongoing; however, precast concrete element delivery is complete, with terminal construction and train testing to run through 2021. Upon the project’s completion, scheduled in 2022, the extension will allow the automated train to run from the Rental Car Center east through the airport, with stops at all existing passenger terminals and a new passenger drop-off/pickup station, before terminating at the 44th Street Station, which connects to the Valley Metro Rail serving Phoenix and other local communities…
The U-girders maintain the overall aesthetic of the guideway structure while meeting all of the structural and serviceability requirements, Pilwallis explains. The precast concrete producer modified its forms to accommodate a deeper U-girder section, allowing for continuous spans up to 797 ft 8 in., and to maintain the standard web slope with filler forms to increase the versatility of the forming system.
Erecting the post-tensioned U-girder was the biggest obstacle the project team faced, as the unit spanned over an active airport terminal building during construction. “The challenging site constraints and the operational need to have small- to medium-size aircrafts taxi below our guideway led us to use longer-than-typical bridge spans for precast concrete,” Pilwallis says. “We used spliced precast concrete girders to extend the spans and fit the sit e.”
The tight site conditions did not allow the team to use temporary falsework supports in the span adjacent to the terminal building, so the precast concrete specialty engineer designed embedded corbel brackets to support the drop-in girders from the adjacent pier girders. The corbels allowed for vertical adjustment with shim plates and a simple field connection of two bolts per corbel. With this accelerated construction method, the girders could be erected in the four-hour time slots allotted for the work.
Overview
Market Segment
Bridge
Products
U-girders (60″ and 78″)
Voided Rectangular Box girders
Voided Slabs
CIP Deck Slabs
CIP Single and Double-Column Piers
CIP Pier Caps
AWARDS
2022 PCI Design Awards
Non-Highway Bridge Cowinner
Stats
Project Cost: $745 million
Project Size: 2.2-miles
Project Spans: over 197 ft.
PROJECT TEAM
Owner
City of Phoenix Aviation Dept.
PCI-Certified Precast Concrete Producers
TPAC, Phoenix, Ariz.
Precast Concrete Specialty Engineer
Modjeski and Masters, Littleton, Colo.
Engineer of Record
Gannett Fleming, Phoenix, Ariz.
General Contractor
Hensel Phelps, Phoenix, Ariz.
Temporary Works Subcontractor
Pulice Construction, Phoenix, Ariz.
