海角视频

LAX Midfield Satellite Concourse South

Los Angeles, USA

海角视频 worked closely with architects Woods Bagot to design and plan the new Midfield Satellite Concourse (MSC) South at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), with a segmented delivery solution that minimizes disruption to the neighbouring taxiways.

The design team鈥檚 pre-engineered, off-site construction approach creates an efficient and highly sustainable terminal for both passengers and airport operators alike. The MSC South project is part of a larger phased plan at LAX that aims to create a modernized and efficient suite of terminals.

The project used an innovative construction approach known as offsite construction and relocation (OCR).

The requirement to keep LAX fully operational during the construction period presented considerable challenges.

The OCR approach involved an initial segmented construction nearby, beyond the live taxiways.

Once construction began on site, a segment was moved every three days 鈥� meaning the whole construction was wrapped up in about a month.

Challenge

Supporting eight new domestic gates, the twin-level, 150,000ft虏 MSC South concourse takes advantage of a key 10-acre site. Constrained on all sides by taxiways, an adjacent hangar, and MSC North 鈥� and with the requirement to keep LAX fully operational during the construction period 鈥� the site presented considerable challenges.

Woods Bagot and 海角视频 answered the challenge with an innovative approach that used an offsite construction and relocation (OCR) strategy. Traditional building techniques would entail months of construction, requiring the partial closure of the neighbouring taxiways. But the OCR approach enabled the new concourse to take shape in just a matter of a few weeks.

However, the terminal building needed to be carefully planned to be delivered as a segmented OCR construction, including detailed consideration for the tensions and loads imposed on the segmented structures during transportation and installation.

The seismic nature of the Los Angeles region also dictated that the structure, while being lightweight to minimize carbon and enable segmented transportation, also had to take into consideration the significant seismic tolerances required 鈥� with each of the separate segments requiring its own lateral system to enhance the seismic resilience of the building.

Solution

The OCR approach to segmented construction involved the construction of large sections of the building that were prefabricated offsite on a nearby plot. An area of the airport鈥檚 land beyond the taxiways was set aside for the initial construction of the sections. The concourse was then transported to the site in just nine large-scale elements.

As well as rapidly speeding up the construction process, the OCR approach also ensured a safer construction site, achieved through the reduced workload undertaken in an external active airfield environment. It also reduced the administration involved in getting workforce security access for the airside site, which in turn helped to open the project up to a more diverse workforce and increased LAWA鈥檚 ability to engage with the local Minority-Owned Business Enterprise (MBE) workforce.

OCR allowed for a reduced construction schedule, unconstrained by site activities and dependencies, with sections built and ready for final assembly on site. It also meant increased sustainability, through the enhanced planning of resources and the controlled reuse and recycling of materials. The construction strategy also supports circularity and reuse. It could be easily disassembled and moved to another part of the airport if required in the future, as well as easily deconstructed to enable the recycling and reuse of elements at the concourse鈥檚 end of life.

Once construction began, a segment was moved every three days 鈥� meaning the whole construction was wrapped up in about a month.

A typical segment was roughly 140ft by 80ft. Built on the initial development site beyond the runway, largescale specialist transporters were used to move the separate sections the couple of miles to the construction site overnight. Two Mammoet self-propelled modular transporters were used 鈥� the sort of multi-wheeled vehicle we might be more used to seeing moving bridge elements or transporting a space rocket to the take-off tower ahead of a launch.

Each wheel of the transporter could rotate 360 degrees, which allowed sideways movements during transportation, to ensure the elements were moved perfectly into place. Our structural experts played a key role in co-ordinating the points on the structures at which the elements could be safely picked up to be carried by the transporter.

Previous attempts to use this approach for building airport terminals in the USA tackled only the structures and basic elements of building services (MEP). But with the LAX concourse, the design team had a broad range of elements completed offsite, such as partition walls, tiling, and all the MEP services and infrastructure 鈥� pushing the limits for OCR.

Value

Our multidisciplinary team played a key role, working closely with the architect and the wider design team to coordinate the development of the approach, using a central Revit digital model 鈥� essential careful planning that ensured a smooth and efficient project that is pushing the boundaries of what OCR can achieve.

While reducing the time and labor required on site, the off-site construction strategy will help the airport to meet its own ambitious sustainability targets, including targeting LEED Silver certification for this project. The lightweight nature of the structure, with minimal concrete elements, mean the embodied carbon is minimised. The OCR approach also brings cost benefits for the client, significantly reducing construction costs by more than halving the speed of the final construction schedule.