After piles are completed, structural steel and
decking will be assembled above roadways.
BY ROB YINGLING
Construction of two massive buildings that
will be home to new security screening
checkpoints serving 48 airline gates has
transitioned to a significant new phase.
Several months of preparatory work to
evaluate site conditions, refine design
specifications and carefully remove physical
obstacles laid the groundwork for production
of foundations and columns to move forward.
The work site, sandwiched between Terminal
B/C and an elevated Metrorail station
platform, is a carefully choreographed ballet
of people, equipment and supplies that makes
most of its progress in early mornings while
much of the traveling world sleeps.
The star attraction is the drilling rig attached
to a heavy-duty mobile crane that moves into
position, then is secured so its 24-inch diameter
auger can penetrate the soil as much as 40 feet
down. After the auger backs out, trucks pour
up to six cubic yards of fresh concrete to fill the
void. Lastly, crews plunge rebar into the mix
to add strength to the underground column as
the concrete cures. This pile-forming process
will be repeated along the length of the future
structure. The auger cast pile method was
selected to make sturdy foundations for the
new checkpoints, which will be framed above
with more than 1,000 tons of steel and straddle
eight lanes and two sidewalks used by arriving
airline passengers.
Greg Michna oversees contractor activity
for the New Security Checkpoints project.
Watching the schedule closely, Michna’s
Dozens of piles will be
formed up to 40 feet
deep in the ground to
support new security
checkpoint buildings as
part of Project Journey
mission is to keep the project on pace and
leap unforeseen hurdles. “We’re going to
look closely at how much activity we can
perform without negatively impacting
passengers using Terminal B/C,” which
is just a few yards away from the heavy
equipment, Michna says.
As if working in a narrow corridor
isn’t complex enough, pile-making will
eventually move closer to the terminal
and beneath the ticketing roadway, where
overhead clearance is limited. Specialized
equipment and a different strategy will
be employed to drill where the road limits
activity to roughly 30 feet above the ground.
So augers must be attached in segments as
each hole deepens. This adds to the total
estimated time to produce each pile.
Michna, who managed construction at Dulles
International Airport during excavation of a
subterranean mezzanine behind the airport’s
main terminal a decade ago, recalls piles were
added to support existing structures — but
nothing on the scale of the building coming
to Reagan National. Nearly 100 piles, topped
by concrete caps and steel support columns,
will each have the load-bearing strength to
support about 120 tons.
Pile and column installation will span
several months, but the heavy sitework will
expand and contract nightly with the never-
ending cycle of passenger flight schedules.
For Michna, that means prioritizing the
contractor’s work to hit the ground running
after midnight and retreat from prime space
by 9 a.m. “It may seem like a full shift,”
Michna says, “but when you account for
time to setup, making safe attachments and
establishing a work rhythm, you really have
to make the most of the time you have left
before passengers start coming back in.”
After piles are completed, steel columns,
beams and stringers will be lifted into place
to form the backbone of the building.
According to Michna, that’s when the project
team begins realizing their work makes a
difference. “Getting out of the ground is
significant,” Michna says. “Because after
that happens, you have fewer unforeseen
conditions and your operations conform more
closely to the work plan. It makes people feel
good to be a part of something big.”
To learn more about the construction, visit
FlyReagan.com/ProjectJourney.
WINTER 2018/19
7 FLYWASHINGTON.COM