Thursday, March 01, 2007

Sacramento International Airport Expansion

Sacramento International Airport Expansion (yes, the international is used loosely)
$1.1 Billion
New Central Terminal Complex
New 23 Gate Concourse B (with 3 International Gates)
New Parking Garage #2
New FAA Control Tower
Automated People Mover to Concourse B
Upper/Lower Decking of Roadway for Central Terminal (Arrivals and Departures)

Construction will begin in 2008 on the new 700,000ft Terminal B, with the project to be completed in 2011. (we'll see about that)












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To get an idea of how big a project and complicated this is, here is a list of all the companies involved:
Corgan Associates Inc (prime architect)
Dreyfuss and Blackford (architect)
Fentress Bradburn Architects (architect)
Lionakis Beaumont Design Group (architect)
Buehler and Buehler (structural engineering)
Capital Engineering (MEP systems)
Kennedy Jenks (civil engineering)
Hanscomb Faithful and Gould (cost estimating)
Transolutions (performance levels)
Lea and Eliott (people mover)
Leigh Fisher and Associates (parking and ground transportation systems)
The Centre for Airport Management (concessions planning)
CAGE (baggage systems)
PKF (hotel planning)
Conway consulting (airport capacity planning).

Having a modern airport is very key to the business environment of cities. The new terminal will help Sacramento take another step in improving our business travel for these people. I used to travel quite a bit for work and getting direct flights to and from Sac could sometimes be a major pain, esp to and from the east coast. Some of my coworkers who reside in the east would always complain about never being able to get direct flights. I can't blame them either. Stops suck.

Hopefully with the expansion we will see more and more flights coming into Sac, esp given the continued diversification of our economy outside of state government and the need for more corporate travel from these companies. The airport now does close to one million people on some months and has done over 10M during 12 month periods, I have to imagine that number will continue to climb steadily.

I think this is a great,great looking terminal. Terminal B sucks ass. I'm embarrassed when I pick someone up from that terminal. Terminal A is okay, though.

An important factor is to now get the DNA line running out to the airport. A recent trip to Portland continually reminds me of this. There is nothing like being able to jump on light rail type transportation at the airport and go straight to where you need to go.

The latest estimate was 2027!! That is wayyyy too long. Hopefully the city can make that project a priority, along with the Intermodal, when the next round of funding from the transportation bond is allocated that will focus more on public transit.

The expansion will be funded using a variety of sources, including federal grants, airport revenue bonds, passenger charges and internally generated funds.

8 comments:

x said...

Id really like to see some of the color aspects of this project . I dont want it to end up stale like SFO .

I also think LR is key to making this a fully functioning facility . They really need to shave 15 years of that 2027 estimate of completion for the DNA line .

that being said - the sooner Terminal B is reduced to grvel the better !

Anonymous said...

It's hard to believe that you think Terminal A is just "okay". I think that it's brilliant (for the most part). If Terminal B is anything like A then we will have one SWEET airport. I agree about the use of the word "international" though...

GA said...

Compared to B, Terminal A is a palace.

Yeah, you are right. Just okay isn't giving it enough credit. I especially like the new parking garage and that it leads you directly to security. I do wish it had a few more shops. The addition of Brooks Brothers is pretty cool though.

Anonymous said...

SMF is one of Sacramento's great success stories. Passenger totals closing in on 11 mil./year and this new terminal should get it to 16 mil. by 2013 (that's just six years!). Although people disparage the "International" moniker, SMF now serves three international destinations (all in Mexico) with service to Vancouver expected by year's end. Tomorrow, Frontier Airlines starts service to Cabo where they will join Mexicana on the highly successful route. I have some friends in the industry and, if you all don't mind, I'll use this forum to pass along what I hear regarding new service to SMF. Not everything of course. We'd need a separate site to catalogue all of the new air service rumors you hear about a growing airport like SMF, but any that seem particularly feasible, I'll post here.

A big one I'm hearing these days coincides with Southwest's return to SFO this May. The way I hear it, this will start a significant service increase for all of northern California, including SMF. The cities most often mentioned are a non-stop to Baltimore-Washington and new non-stop service to Denver. The Denver flights are part of a major westward expansion for Denver by Southwest. At present, Southwest doesn't fly any non-stops to California from there. Southwest will also increase existing service from SMF to Vegas, Phoenix, Burbank, Ontario, LAX, San Diego (already 12 flights/day!)and Seattle. Total Southwest flights out of SMF will approach 100/day by year's end (about 80-85/day now). Some claim this jump in northern California service is in response to Frontier's alleged plans to significantly enter the California/West Coast market, possibly making Sacramento a focus city. Frontier has already announced an additional flight to Denver this summer, bringing its total to four/day.

On the bad news front, Aer Lingus (the Irish national airline) has chosen San Jose instead of Sacramento for its new non-stop to Dublin. That should be announced later this month. Please post any rumors you hear.

GA said...

Welcome, williaminsd. Great info!

--I have some friends in the industry and, if you all don't mind, I'll use this forum to pass along what I hear regarding new service to SMF

Please do!

Anonymous said...

You are SO right about the necessary RT expansion. I can't believe they're projecting 2027 for that. In 20 years we're all going to be seriously looking at alternative forms of transportation or seeking a new planet.

San Francisco finally got BART service to their rather out-of-the-way airport, with the rapidly growing expansion of Natomas it's high time RT went north.

Anonymous said...

Obviously, great news regarding Air Canada's new service to Vancouver. And while everybody likes to put the International part of Sacramento International Airport in quotes, with this service SMF has 18 flights/week to four international destinations and two internationally-based carriers. That's not bad. So far, all of the international flights have proved the sceptics wrong with their popularity.

Frontier will cut back its 3x/week service to Cabo over the Summer (this is common for Frontier Mexico service), but they have already indicated increasing service to 4x/week in November.

I'm hearing that by the end of the year, Aeromexico may join the party soon after they start Stockton/Guadalajara by offering non-stops to Mexico City and Monterrey (strictly a rumor at this point, but one that makes sense).

As difficult as the Air Canada flights were to procure (as stated in the Bee, formal negotiations started in 2001 and informal talks long before that), the next step in international service - Europe/Asia - should be even more difficult. Although some studies indicate SMF could support daily London service now, the present facilities make that almost impossible. So we're probably looking to at least 2011 (new terminal opening) to see this. The new Boeing 787 is perfectly suited to a SMF - London, Frankfurt, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing, type service. It should enter service withing the year.

All in all, it's already been a great year for SMF and we have a lot of year to go. Just need to get that light rail out there earlier. With all of the bond money recently approved for infrastructure, seems to me there's got to be some available for it.

I hear some new rumor regarding SMF nearly every week. Please share any that you hear.

Unknown said...

Any talk on any new nonstop routes from Sacramento after the Big Build?