Warning, PDF.
http://www.bechtel.com/PDF/Avaiation_Chicago.pdf - Rendering
http://www.suburban-ohare.org/detail.asp?OBJECT_ID=625
O'Hare plans change on the fly
By Fran Spielman City Hall Reporter
O'Hare Airport's soon-to-be-built Terminal 6 will have its own four-story parking garage--with sorely needed, close-in space for 2,600 cars--thanks to a design upgrade included in Mayor Daley's $3.2 billion World Gateway expansion project.
While a pricier indoor garage and four more wide-body, international gates are being added, the Daley administration is saving millions by shelving plans to relocate the airport's heating and refrigeration plant.
The plant was supposed to be moved to make way for a new Terminal 4 to be built during the second phase of World Gateway.
Instead, the underground tunnel system that currently ends at Terminal 5 will be extended beneath the airport roadway to Terminal 6 to bring in heated and chilled water from the existing plant. The subterranean work can be done without disrupting traffic on the airport roadway.
"It was the cost benefit and the potential for disrupting utilities that need to be in place for the airport to continue to function," Aviation Commissioner Thomas Walker said. "This lowers our risk. We already have to relocate flight kitchens, cargo facilities and the [people mover]. We're trying to steer clear of long delays by minimizing the number of facilities that have to be demolished and relocated."
Ever since the post-Sept. 11 travel slowdown--and, more recently, the agreement between Mayor Daley and Gov. Ryan to build new runways and a new west terminal at O'Hare--there has been speculation that World Gateway would be downsized.
Walker stressed that the design changes do not not mean the second new terminal is being shelved. A new Terminal 4 could still be built around the heating and cooling plant, sources said.
"No decision has been made about Phase Two. We'll see what happens when we get there," the commissioner said.
In September 2000, United and American Airlines signed on to the World Gateway plan and its new system of assigning gates on a "preferential" instead of an exclusive basis.
The agreement wrapped up months of contentious negotiations that saw City Hall agree to phase in the project and assume a greater share of the financial burden. The airline ticket tax was subsequently raised--from $3 to $4.50 per passenger--to accommodate the change.
One year later, the largest single contract in Chicago history--to build an $800 million to $1 billion terminal--was awarded to a company represented by Victor Reyes, Mayor Daley's newly retired political enforcer.
The winning team was asked to design and build a 550,000-square-foot terminal adjacent to the International Terminal.
The project also includes: an extension of the O'Hare people mover system; improvements to the airport's upper- and lower-level roadways and construction of a temporary terminal extension, an aircraft apron strip, a pedestrian bridge and a staging area for snow removal.
Since then, 10 to 15 percent of the design work has been completed and major alterations have been made.
Chief among them is the decision to replace a 500-space surface parking lot with a four-story, 2,600-space parking garage that will bolster the number of enclosed parking spaces at O'Hare by 34 percent. The airport currently has 24,094 spaces, only 7,684 are located under cover at the main garage.
"We have plenty of space in remote lots accessed by the people mover. But what this new structure will provide is more adjacent spaces for those passengers who would rather come a little later, park a little closer and go directly to the terminals," Walker said.
"We're always looking to maximize features that customers believe make an airport more user-friendly. Close-in, convenient, relatively inexpensive parking is one of those things."
At the same time, the city is seeking to reclaim 1,673 close-in spaces in O'Hare's main parking garage by asking the federal government to relax a 300-foot rule imposed after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
The Daley administration has also directed its design team to include four more "swing gates" capable of accommodating wider-body jets used to service international flights. Initial plans called for Terminal 6 to include 15 new gates, but only two of the extra-large variety needed to receive overseas passengers.
The revised plan would bring the number of wide-body gates to six. That will give the airlines maximum flexibility to accommodate projected growth in international travel.
An airline executive, who asked to remain anonymous, praised City Hall for being flexible enough to accommodate changing needs.
"World Gateway is a work-in-progress," the airline official said. "The whole thing was set up in a conceptual way. They tried to plan it, but as times and needs change, it has to be changed. Parking is a very hot commodity. And accommodating wider jets is a good idea. That's what the needs of the future are."
T6-Partners, the joint-venture led by Bechtel Infrastructure Corp., is scheduled to complete 30 percent of the design work by December. By that time, the city hopes to have nailed down a construction financing agreement and specifics of the new preferential gate assignments with major airlines.
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