SLC Terminal Reconstruction Updates

jubguy3 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:02 am

I'm moving the photo updates into a separate thread that I'll be updating biweekly with the regular photo update + SLCDA's quarterly email alerts, and any other news pertaining to the SLC Terminal reconstruction, because I did not have control over the original post. Please ask me questions, I'd love to answer them.

SLC Reconstruction Website

Update Source

Reconstruction Timeline

2017

Continued driving piles for Terminal, South Concourse-west, and Gateway Center
Start construction on Central Utility Plant, Gateway Center, Parking Garage, Terminal, and the west side of the north and south concourses
Break ground on North Concourse-west
New Park and Wait Lot to open

2018-2019

Continue construction on the Central Utility Plant, Gateway Center, Parking Garage, Terminal, and the North and South Concourses-west

2020

Unveiling of Gateway Center, Parking Garage, Terminal, North and South Concourses-west
Begin demolition of former parking garage, Terminals 1 and 2, and Concourses A and E

2021-2024

Build North and South Concourses-east
Demolition of Concourses B, C, and D
Demolition of International Terminal

As of 11/12/17, the entirety of the structural steel has been erected for South Concourse -- (West). Framing / enclosure has begun on the first two "nodes" of S. Concourse (W). The parking garage has been poured up to level one, and work has gone up to level two. The final pillars have been installed for the elevated roadway, and work is continuing on the Central Utility Plant. Structural steel work has begun on the Terminal. North Concourse -- (West) will break ground within the coming weeks. Right now, the project is ahead of schedule. The SLCDA recently explained to the Tribune that the airport will meet capacity in 2026, within 2 years of the East Concourses opening. Right now, the easiest option is to build the remaining 15 gates on North Concourse - East, because the phasing strategy designed for the airport means that work will not begin on the East Concourses until 2020; Okland has expressed interest in expanding the $740m contract for the North Concourse. Whether or not that is happening will be announced in 2018.

jubguy3 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:07 am

The SLCDA recently posted a series of photos on their Instagram of the reconstruction project.

Workers pouring the first elevated deck of the parking garage.

Aerial picture of the Terminal.

Central Utility Plant

Construction on the ground level of the Terminal.

Rebar on the second deck of the parking garage.

LAX772LR · Mon Nov 13, 2017 8:09 am

Well done, with the descriptions + pics! This is what a thread should be.

Aeroflot777 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:48 am

Thank you for this thread! I lived in SLC for 4 years while attending college and flight school. Flew as a private pilot from the airport 2-3 times a week and as a passenger bi-monthly (would travel back to the SF Bay Area often). Super excited to see these changes come alive, they are very much needed for future success.

From an operational perspective, it's one of my favorite airports in the US. Looking forward to your updates!

PDX757 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:58 am

Aeroflot777 wrote:
Thank you for this thread! I lived in SLC for 4 years while attending college and flight school. Flew as a private pilot from the airport 2-3 times a week and as a passenger bi-monthly (would travel back to the SF Bay Area often). Super excited to see these changes come alive, they are very much needed for future success.

From an operational perspective, it's one of my favorite airports in the US. Looking forward to your updates!

Westminster College?

tan1mill · Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:07 pm

Thank you! Keep the updates and photos coming.

atrude777 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:04 pm

Thanks for starting this topic and setting it up!

The photos look amazing and it's developing fast.

It appears it will make SLC similar to an ATL or DEN set up, which makes for the most part connecting easier. SLC is already easy and nice to connect through, but updates are needed.

Great job on getting the photos and details together, makes it easier to follow and update!

Alex

william · Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:42 pm

Thank you for the pictures, its amazing engineering feat to build a new terminal while keeping regular ops unaffected. A big thanks for this thread.

william · Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:42 pm

LAX772LR wrote:
Well done, with the descriptions + pics! This is what a thread should be.

+1

Aeroflot777 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:01 pm

PDX757 wrote:
Westminster College?

Go Griffins!

PDX757 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:17 pm

Aeroflot777 wrote:
PDX757 wrote:
Westminster College?

Go Griffins!

Right on. I was in the aviation program there from 2006-2009

tan1mill · Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:43 pm

As excited as I am for "The New SLC" I wish a different color was chosen. The orange/brown was supposed to mimic the colors of Utah, which sounds all warm and fuzzy to the ears but visually does not look that appealing. I'm willing to bet more people will say "what an ugly color" than equate it to the colors of the Utah desert.

jubguy3 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:50 pm

tan1mill wrote:
As excited as I am for "The New SLC" I wish a different color was chosen. The orange/brown was supposed to mimic the colors of Utah, which sounds all warm and fuzzy to the ears but visually does not look that appealing. I'm willing to bet more people will say "what an ugly color" than equate it to the colors of the Utah desert.

I agree. I've actually seen a section of the cladding that was installed on a test building near the western portion of the elevated roadway where it meets the ground. It looks nice in person.... but the previous renders were also much more attractive with a less generic looking exterior and a warmer interior.

Compare that to this, at 0:10 showing the interior of the concourses. I'm not to worried though because someone reached out to the SLCDA on twitter a while back and they explained that these renderings were to establish a definite sense of space and shape, and that the airport is still using the "warm colors" philosophy throughout. And it wouldn't take too much work to make the new renderings look less sterile than they do right now. Something else to note is that the canyons sculpture will feature LED spotlights showing a variety of utah-inspired colors (whatever that means).

jubguy3 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 9:54 pm

LAX772LR wrote:
Well done, with the descriptions + pics! This is what a thread should be.

Aeroflot777 wrote:
Thank you for this thread! I lived in SLC for 4 years while attending college and flight school. Flew as a private pilot from the airport 2-3 times a week and as a passenger bi-monthly (would travel back to the SF Bay Area often). Super excited to see these changes come alive, they are very much needed for future success.

From an operational perspective, it's one of my favorite airports in the US. Looking forward to your updates!

tan1mill wrote:
Thank you! Keep the updates and photos coming.

atrude777 wrote:
Thanks for starting this topic and setting it up!

The photos look amazing and it's developing fast.

It appears it will make SLC similar to an ATL or DEN set up, which makes for the most part connecting easier. SLC is already easy and nice to connect through, but updates are needed.

Great job on getting the photos and details together, makes it easier to follow and update!

Alex

william wrote:
Thank you for the pictures, its amazing engineering feat to build a new terminal while keeping regular ops unaffected. A big thanks for this thread.

Thank you for the responses!

and @william, if you're curious, I can find the old phasing strategy from back when the airport was going to renovate B,C, and D and there was going to be no north concourse. A lot of work has gone into phasing this project (or at least it did back before the north concourse was added... the addition simplifies the project incredibly because now the N and S concourses west can open at once, meaning that they don't really have to work around existing operations between 2020-2024 as they demolish the old airport.

DCA-ROCguy · Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:00 pm

Good for SLC. Looks like a reasonable number of gates with room for expansion.

Is it just me, or does the landside building look somewhat small? Am I missing something?

Jim

william · Mon Nov 13, 2017 10:04 pm

What was the reason behind not using the present concourses? I agree with the new north concourse.

So when the north concourse is being constructed, doesn't mean one side of concourse D will not be used? That plus E concourse being gone, how are the airlines (read Delta) coping with less gates?

Narfish641 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:11 pm

Awesome Update to the airport. It's gonna look really nice when its completed. It does look a bit small however. And I like the concept images, even though by the time 2020, half of the airlines would of gotten rid of their quad jets lol. Like the ATL like layout, it's really nice!

Aeroflot777 · Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:22 pm

PDX757 wrote:
Right on. I was in the aviation program there from 2006-2009

Then, we surely must be acquainted in real life

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:04 am

william wrote:

What was the reason behind not using the present concourses? I agree with the new north concourse.

So when the north concourse is being constructed, doesn't mean one side of concourse D will not be used? That plus E concourse being gone, how are the airlines (read Delta) coping with less gates?

Over a period of 10 years it was cost-negative to build the north concourses anyways. B and A would have been nearly 70 years old when the expected construction would have completed on the north concourse based on initial phasing strategy...

The phasing strategy for using the new concourses was very complex. It would have involved maintaining the international terminal, constructing west concourse, building walkways between the three concourses, renovating concourse A, demolishing the terminals, renovating each concourse individually, destroying the international terminal as they construct an additional bridge... and finally building the east concourse, building bridges individually between each concourse to the new concourse, and demolishing the old bridges and terminal A. It was going to be a headache of activating individual gates, deactivating them, destroying, building, etc...

The SLCDA realized that there was no point in carrying through with this plan that was nearly the same price and would have made it a headache to continue to phase two, even though it was expected to begin within 3-4 years of the completion of the "original" plan anyways. The SLCDA is in a very healthy state for an airline hub (they had 1.1bn saved up until this project... that cash is still being exhausted for the reconstruction project) so it made sense to spend an additional $740m for brand new facilities that will last for another 50 years rather than having to spend at least an equivalent of that amount later for a worse end result. And the existence of the new concourses negated the entire purpose of creating the new terminal concept. So I think the SLCDA realized that the initial solution was the result of the notion that there needed to be some permanent 'bridge' (in terms of time) between the new and old airport rather than just continuing onto the full reconstruction project.

Only the west section of the north concourse, like the south concourse, is being constructed between now and 2020. The west portion does not impact operations in concourse D. When the new airport is activated in 2020, the old airport will be deactivated entirely and D can be demolished, leaving space to build the north concourse.

Adding to that, concourse E is relatively unimportant to airport operations. Part of the reason that they decided to build the new airport the way they did was to make every single gate a jetbridge gate. E has a ton of gates but very few of them are actually useful. DL has started to move regional flying to mainline flying, so E is still busier than before but is not critical to airport operations.

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:09 am

DCA-ROCguy wrote:
Good for SLC. Looks like a reasonable number of gates with room for expansion.

Is it just me, or does the landside building look somewhat small? Am I missing something?

Jim

About 50% of the PAX at SLC are connecting, but yes, you're right that its a smaller terminal (approx 740k square feet, which was around 200k more than the old airport). Something to consider is that the terminal is a multilevel layout, so it definitely looks smaller from the air than it really is. But there is room to expand the terminal... if you look at the aerial view, you can see that its currently assymetrical. There is room to expand the airport in the "missing" portion of the terminal (I don't know how to explain that any better). They can also expand on either end the portion of the terminal that fronts the roadway. The SLCDA said in an article a while back that when they do chose to expand the north concourse to its additional 15 gates, they will reach the limits of the baggage system and likely will need to expand the terminal along with the north concourse.

Aloha717200 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:20 am

Its so surreal, exciting, and somewhat bittersweet to watch this progress. I grew up in the 1980s and 1990s watching SLC grow into a major hub, capturing my interest in aviation and setting my path towards a career in the airlines that I have today. So for me the old terminals carry with them a significant amount of nostalgia.

I worked in SLC until 2016, seeing the very beginnings of the construction project and partial demo of Concourse E. It's amazing to see how far theyve come in one year. Looks like I need to take a trip back, to be sure, and capture as much as I can on my lens before its all gone.

Long live the 727 and L1011 paradise that SLC once was

ADM94 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:22 am

jubguy3 wrote:
About 50% of the PAX at SLC are connecting, but yes, you're right that its a smaller terminal (approx 740k square feet, which was around 200k more than the old airport). Something to consider is that the terminal is a multilevel layout, so it definitely looks smaller from the air than it really is. But there is room to expand the terminal... if you look at the aerial view, you can see that its currently assymetrical. There is room to expand the airport in the "missing" portion of the terminal (I don't know how to explain that any better). They can also expand on either end the portion of the terminal that fronts the roadway. The SLCDA said in an article a while back that when they do chose to expand the north concourse to its additional 15 gates, they will reach the limits of the baggage system and likely will need to expand the terminal along with the north concourse.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but IIRC there was talk of there being enough space for a third concourse should further expansion be needed in the future, as well. I don't expect that to be needed in the next 10-20 years at least, but having that design flexibility has been an important part of the redevelopment project.

william wrote:
So when the north concourse is being constructed, doesn't mean one side of concourse D will not be used? That plus E concourse being gone, how are the airlines (read Delta) coping with less gates?

https://slcairport.com/blog/2017/08/slc ... perations/

Preparations are being made to use remote hard stand gates during the redevelopment to help deal with the reduction in gate space. I would guess the OO CRJs that will eventually be displaced from the E concourse might be likely candidates for bus gates.

Aeroflot777 wrote:
Go Griffins!

That makes three of us!

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:45 am

ADM94 wrote:
jubguy3 wrote:
About 50% of the PAX at SLC are connecting, but yes, you're right that its a smaller terminal (approx 740k square feet, which was around 200k more than the old airport). Something to consider is that the terminal is a multilevel layout, so it definitely looks smaller from the air than it really is. But there is room to expand the terminal... if you look at the aerial view, you can see that its currently assymetrical. There is room to expand the airport in the "missing" portion of the terminal (I don't know how to explain that any better). They can also expand on either end the portion of the terminal that fronts the roadway. The SLCDA said in an article a while back that when they do chose to expand the north concourse to its additional 15 gates, they will reach the limits of the baggage system and likely will need to expand the terminal along with the north concourse.

I'm not sure if this is still the case, but IIRC there was talk of there being enough space for a third concourse should further expansion be needed in the future, as well. I don't expect that to be needed in the next 10-20 years at least, but having that design flexibility has been an important part of the redevelopment project.

william wrote:
So when the north concourse is being constructed, doesn't mean one side of concourse D will not be used? That plus E concourse being gone, how are the airlines (read Delta) coping with less gates?

https://slcairport.com/blog/2017/08/slc ... perations/

Preparations are being made to use remote hard stand gates during the redevelopment to help deal with the reduction in gate space. I would guess the OO CRJs that will eventually be displaced from the E concourse might be likely candidates for bus gates.

Aeroflot777 wrote:
Go Griffins!

That makes three of us!

I forgot about the hardstand operations. Thank you for including that!

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:48 am

This article from March should help to answer questions about additional growth at the airport for anyone wondering.

The massive $2.9 billion project to rebuild Salt Lake City International Airport may handle projected air traffic for as little as five years after completion — until 2025.

That information emerged Wednesday in an exchange at the Airport Advisory Board.

"Will it take care of us for 25 years?" state Sen. Karen Mayne, a board member, wanted to know about the reconstruction project's ability to handle growth.

"It could be five," said Kevin Robins, the interim airport director.

That surprisingly short projected shelf life is due to growing demand for more flights. Robins said that, with the additional gates and flights airlines are now seeking, the airport may need to build all of a planned second, northern concourse.

About 15 extra gates there have been penciled in, and officials may decide in a year or two whether to add them and "keep building. Those 15 gates are sort of a relief valve," said Terminal Redevelopment Project Director Mike Williams.

Robins said, "If we build the entire north concourse, that starts putting enough pressure on the baggage-handling system that we may have to look at actually expanding the terminal to accommodate the additional gates."

With an eye to the far-distant future, Mayne asked if the airport has enough land to build even more than the two now-planned, parallel concourses.
Robins said master plans include a third concourse eventually. The airport also has enough land "that if we needed to, we could add a fourth concourse. It would require us to move a lot of the north support facilities."

Robins said master plans are "trying to address, 'What is the future if we continue the growth we are experiencing now?' "

He added that the airport at present "continues to face the good problem of growing traffic and not enough rooms at the inn to be able to accommodate" it.

Among new service that he said has been announced are Delta flights beginning in December to Maui, Hawaii, and Tampa, Fla. "We did have Maui service before, and it's coming back in December."

He also said United recently started new nonstop service to Newark, N.J. Southwest has added service to Burbank and Sacramento, Calif. And internationally, KLM later this month will restart nonstop service to Amsterdam.

"All good problems to have," Robins said. "We continue to make contingency plans."

The current $2.9 billion project aims to build a new terminal and two new parallel concourses by 2020, replacing all current terminals and concourses.

The current airport was designed to handle about 10 million passengers a year, and is now seeing more than twice that number.

The airport's proposed 2018 budget, unveiled Wednesday, includes $744 million of planned work that year on the new terminals and concourses.
So far, most construction for the terminal redevelopment project has been underground and largely out of sight. That's about to change.

Construction of foundations and installation of miles of utilities have progressed to the point that structural steel is about to spring skyward.
"We are starting to get out of the ground," Williams reported.

He said structural steel will start to be erected next month at the new south concourse, "so you will really start to see the buildings come up out of the ground."

He added, "Work is going on everywhere on the 135-acre site right now. It's pretty amazing."

Roads around the airport continue to be rerouted as needed for construction.

Williams said construction of a new "park-and-wait" lot has been completed, and traffic will likely be shifted to it in May — when the current park-and-wait lot will be removed for redevelopment work.

The new 2018 budget for the airport, which is subject to approval by the Salt Lake City Council, also proposes to spend $103.9 million on airport operations. It includes a 3 percent increase in wages for airport employees.

About 40 percent of projected operation revenues come from "landside" concessions such as maintaining and fueling aircraft; 38 percent from airline fees; 12 percent from terminal concessions; with the rest from leases, aviation tax, general aviation fees and other sources.

Capn · Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:51 pm

Excuse me if this was mentioned earlier. Has it been stated where DLs. gates will be in new terminal and how many they will have?
Thanks

FlyHossD · Tue Nov 14, 2017 4:41 pm

JubGuy3 - Very nice job on the posts and info here. These days, when I pass through SLC, it's on the G.A. side, but I know that the future may bring some connections on DL, so I've been curious about the project. So, again thanks.

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:10 pm

Capn wrote:
Excuse me if this was mentioned earlier. Has it been stated where DLs. gates will be in new terminal and how many they will have?
Thanks

They have not announced where Delta's gates will be yet. But I would imagine at least all of the North concourse and part of the South concourse

Capn · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:25 pm

jubguy3 wrote:
Capn wrote:
Excuse me if this was mentioned earlier. Has it been stated where DLs. gates will be in new terminal and how many they will have?
Thanks

They have not announced where Delta's gates will be yet. But I would imagine at least all of the North concourse and part of the South concourse

If that turns out to be the case, it seems as if DL may be thinking way down the road in case they would ever need the 3rd.concourse.
By the way great job you are doing, thanks for taking the time.

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 5:53 pm

Capn wrote:
jubguy3 wrote:
Capn wrote:
Excuse me if this was mentioned earlier. Has it been stated where DLs. gates will be in new terminal and how many they will have?
Thanks

They have not announced where Delta's gates will be yet. But I would imagine at least all of the North concourse and part of the South concourse

If that turns out to be the case, it seems as if DL may be thinking way down the road in case they would ever need the 3rd.concourse.
By the way great job you are doing, thanks for taking the time.

Thank you! I'm going to assume that based on their long term plans (they were involved in the design of the airport) that they are going to want to gravitate towards the outer edges of the airport because the majority of traffic is connecting and will never need to cross under the tunnel. And when they do expand to the third concourse, they will have one continuous "block" of gates. I'm assuming that they would keep around half of the gates in the south concourse initially. They also need to maintain a permanent presence in the south concourse because there are 4-6 widebody gates with specialized FIS immigration corridors and I don't think that they are going to leave them to waste.

Currently, Delta uses all 13 gates in C, 22 in B, and 13 gates in D, along with the regional gates in E (of which there were 40, but it currently stands at 24, and most of them are just doors onto the tarmac anyways), for a total of 58 mainline gates + let's say an equivalent of 14 mainline gates for the E concourse as they move towards more mainline flying. KLM shares with Delta at gate D2 but isn't of much significance to overall airport traffic. I don't know what gates Aeromexico will use. Otherwise the remaining traffic is consolidated to the 8 A gates.

I would imagine that other carriers are going to begin to occupy more gates upon the opening of the new airport because the A concourse has been packed within the last few years. Alaska was sharing with Delta in B but had to move elsewhere because of their souring relationships... jetBlue has one gate, frontier has one gate, Air Canada had one gate but is now cancelling service to Toronto, I don't know who is picking up that gate. I think southwest has 2 or 3 and Alaska has two gates.

I imagine that when the west concourses open, Delta will be the sole occupant because the A concourse will still be in operation during construction of the east concourse.

The new airport has enough gates, but just barely enough. I can see why they are itching to expand. Even if Delta does switch over entirely to mainline gates, that leaves them with 65 jetbridge gates and other carriers with 10 gates. That's only 7 over the amount they currently have, though these gates will be more flexible and efficient. I would expect to see the north concourse full expansion to be approved because I don't think DL wants to move into an airport that's only the right size for the immediate moment. Adding 15 gates to the north concourse would allow giving 3 or so back to other carriers and DL getting an extra 12 gates, bringing their total to 77.

This is what I expect the 2024 full airport to be arranged as:

As Delta expands northward, they can give more gates back to other carriers (obviously as they see fit because they do not play nicely here... I may be overly optimistic in how generous delta is going to be in conceding to other carriers). There would obviously be 1 widebody gate on the south concourse that non-skyteam carriers would use, if say LH, Condor, etc. ever showed up here. I think the current equivalent of that gate is A8, which Air Canada was using with their ERJs to Toronto. SkyTeam partners (KL, AM, and KE or AF in the future) could use the FIS gates on the north portion of the south concourse that have dedicated walkways to immigration.

Capn · Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:21 pm

Great reply and info. On your diagram of the complete 2024 build out wouldn't the east end of the North concourse all be built out with 15 more gates?
I only came up with 48 mainline gates today ,you say 58 plus what they have in E. Just curious if I missed something ( something my wife tells me that happens more and more often ).
Thank you for making this site so interesting.

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:48 pm

Capn wrote:
Great reply and info. On your diagram of the complete 2024 build out wouldn't the east end of the North concourse all be built out with 15 more gates?
I only came up with 48 mainline gates today ,you say 58 plus what they have in E. Just curious if I missed something ( something my wife tells me that happens more and more often ).
Thank you for making this site so interesting.

They are only building 30 of the 45 gates on the north concourses so far. But the SLCDA will announce within the next year if they are willing to expand the contract they made with Okland for the North Concourse to include the remaining 15 gates as a relief valve.

They have 48 mainline gates... that was a math error on my part! ; 13 each in C and D, and 22 in C. Sorry about that. So they are actually getting around 17 new mainline gates if I remember correctly, which should be enough to handle the capacity lost by reducing regional gates... if you can call them that... more like doors.

Thank you for the responses!

dcchipper · Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:59 pm

Some additional information regarding how gates will be handled. Per the minutes of the May 2016 board meeting where the North Concourse was announced https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDo ... ay2016.pdf pg 29 the North Concourse will be all CUTE gates. When I talked to airport staff at another board meeting because I was looking to clarify a couple of points they told me that Delta will be the only airline in the South Concourse and will put any overflow onto the North Concourse. All other airlines will be in the North Concourse and that there are gates on the North Concourse that are set up with space to handle up to group V aircraft just by changing the parking lines. There is a set of gates in phase one of the North Concourse that appear to have the reconfigure-able space to allow 2 group V aircraft where there are currently 3 group III aircraft gates and extra space and also a gate which appears to have space for a group IV aircraft. These would be swing gates (narrow body to wide body) like the international gates on the south concourse. All gates in the international arrivals section will remain under airport control with international flights having priority. If the are not needed to handle an international flights priority would be wide body planes for any airline, until the North Concourse has its wide body gates activated, and then Delta narrow body domestic flights.

Capn · Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:28 pm

Thank you jubguy3 and dcchipper.
I am not getting the same numbers, lf SOUTH has 45 and DL gets all of them and NORTH has 30 and they are all CUTE gates, even if DL can use them it seems like a big loss of DL owned gates.
I certainly don't see the plus 17.
I am guessing more to come... stay tuned.

jubguy3 · Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:29 pm

dcchipper wrote:
Some additional information regarding how gates will be handled. Per the minutes of the May 2016 board meeting where the North Concourse was announced https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDo ... ay2016.pdf pg 29 the North Concourse will be all CUTE gates. When I talked to airport staff at another board meeting because I was looking to clarify a couple of points they told me that Delta will be the only airline in the South Concourse and will put any overflow onto the North Concourse. All other airlines will be in the North Concourse and that there are gates on the North Concourse that are set up with space to handle up to group V aircraft just by changing the parking lines. There is a set of gates in phase one of the North Concourse that appear to have the reconfigure-able space to allow 2 group V aircraft where there are currently 3 group III aircraft gates and extra space and also a gate which appears to have space for a group IV aircraft. These would be swing gates (narrow body to wide body) like the international gates on the south concourse. All gates in the international arrivals section will remain under airport control with international flights having priority. If the are not needed to handle an international flights priority would be wide body planes for any airline, until the North Concourse has its wide body gates activated, and then Delta narrow body domestic flights.

Wow, thank you for this!

727823 · Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:25 am

Thanks for the updates. This has been a project that i've watched really closely since it was finalized. I remember sitting in SLC one time trying to find a flight home because we missed a connection and thinking how much I liked SLC but it needed an update (great staff there on a side note). Can't wait to see some of the finished products

jubguy3 · Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:40 am

Capn wrote:
Thank you jubguy3 and dcchipper.
I am not getting the same numbers, lf SOUTH has 45 and DL gets all of them and NORTH has 30 and they are all CUTE gates, even if DL can use them it seems like a big loss of DL owned gates.
I certainly don't see the plus 17.
I am guessing more to come... stay tuned.

There are nearly 40 "gates" in the regional E concourse that are merely doors on to the apron. But every gate will have jetbridges at the new airport, and DL has expressed intent to switch to two-class only service minimum and a larger number of mainline jets at SLC, leading to an effective increase in capacity because the gates in the E concourse are effective just doors.

Aloha717200 · Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:06 am

What are "CUTE" gates?

jsnww81 · Wed Nov 15, 2017 5:15 am

I'm still thrilled they decided to go ahead and build the North Concourse in the first phase. The former plan, which retained three of the old concourses, was commendably designed to save money and help the airport manage debt, but let's be honest - it looked horrible. Imagine a sparkling new terminal, some new gates, and tacked-on temporary walkways connecting to 35-year-old concourses.

I'm enjoying watching this project come together. The current SLC terminal isn't bad by any means, but it does look a bit tired.

Capn · Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:23 pm

jubguy3 wrote:
Capn wrote:
Thank you jubguy3 and dcchipper.
I am not getting the same numbers, lf SOUTH has 45 and DL gets all of them and NORTH has 30 and they are all CUTE gates, even if DL can use them it seems like a big loss of DL owned gates.
I certainly don't see the plus 17.
I am guessing more to come... stay tuned.

There are nearly 40 "gates" in the regional E concourse that are merely doors on to the apron. But every gate will have jetbridges at the new airport, and DL has expressed intent to switch to two-class only service minimum and a larger number of mainline jets at SLC, leading to an effective increase in capacity because the gates in the E concourse are effective just doors.

Thanks again for all your info, look forward to your future posts.

jubguy3 · Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:23 am

Capn wrote:
jubguy3 wrote:
Capn wrote:
Thank you jubguy3 and dcchipper.
I am not getting the same numbers, lf SOUTH has 45 and DL gets all of them and NORTH has 30 and they are all CUTE gates, even if DL can use them it seems like a big loss of DL owned gates.
I certainly don't see the plus 17.
I am guessing more to come... stay tuned.

There are nearly 40 "gates" in the regional E concourse that are merely doors on to the apron. But every gate will have jetbridges at the new airport, and DL has expressed intent to switch to two-class only service minimum and a larger number of mainline jets at SLC, leading to an effective increase in capacity because the gates in the E concourse are effective just doors.

Thanks again for all your info, look forward to your future posts.

There should hopefully be a lot of info to post here; the SLCDA does a great job of putting out information. They publish their montly meetings which contain a lot of behinds the scene stuff about the TRP; they also post biweekly construction updates with photos, quarterly press reports and email alerts, and an abundance of photos on their instagram and facebook along with occasional videos and interviews. It all seems to be scattered about so hopefully this thread will help to consolidate some of the information they've been releasing.

PDX757 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 1:10 am

jubguy3 wrote:
There should hopefully be a lot of info to post here; the SLCDA does a great job of putting out information. They publish their montly meetings which contain a lot of behinds the scene stuff about the TRP; they also post biweekly construction updates with photos, quarterly press reports and email alerts, and an abundance of photos on their instagram and facebook along with occasional videos and interviews. It all seems to be scattered about so hopefully this thread will help to consolidate some of the information they've been releasing.

SLC public agencies seem to be very good about posting updates on large projects. I remember when Trax and frontrunner were being extended a few years ago the UTA website was updated at least once a week with pictures and what work was being done.

ADM94 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:42 am

PDX757 wrote:
SLC public agencies seem to be very good about posting updates on large projects. I remember when Trax and frontrunner were being extended a few years ago the UTA website was updated at least once a week with pictures and what work was being done.

That reminds me, lately there's been talk of UTA changing the design of the relocated TRAX station at the new airport. Instead of building a track that will follow the elevated roadway up to a platform integrated into the terminal, they're hoping to build a detached platform at ground level. This article gives some more details:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/201 ... asic-plan/

kunta67 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 5:44 am

Does anyone have the phased map schedule? I remember seeing one a couple years ago when they announced the terminal

timf · Fri Nov 17, 2017 2:08 pm

kunta67 wrote:
Does anyone have the phased map schedule? I remember seeing one a couple years ago when they announced the terminal

It was posted above in post 32: https://www.slcairport.com/assets/pdfDo ... ay2016.pdf

Look starting on page 35.

PITingres · Fri Nov 17, 2017 4:27 pm

Aloha717200 wrote:
What are "CUTE" gates?

Not entirely sure of the acronym, but they are common use gates, usable by any carrier rather than dedicated to one carrier. You'd think that it would be no big deal, but apparently it requires a good bit more flexibility in gate systems than you see in the traditional dedicated gate. Maybe someone with more inside knowledge will add to this.

rampboy77 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 7:32 pm

PITingres wrote:
Aloha717200 wrote:
What are "CUTE" gates?

Not entirely sure of the acronym, but they are common use gates, usable by any carrier rather than dedicated to one carrier. You'd think that it would be no big deal, but apparently it requires a good bit more flexibility in gate systems than you see in the traditional dedicated gate. Maybe someone with more inside knowledge will add to this.

Common Use Terminal Equipment

jubguy3 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:37 pm

ADM94 wrote:
PDX757 wrote:
SLC public agencies seem to be very good about posting updates on large projects. I remember when Trax and frontrunner were being extended a few years ago the UTA website was updated at least once a week with pictures and what work was being done.

That reminds me, lately there's been talk of UTA changing the design of the relocated TRAX station at the new airport. Instead of building a track that will follow the elevated roadway up to a platform integrated into the terminal, they're hoping to build a detached platform at ground level. This article gives some more details:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/201 ... asic-plan/

In my opinion that would be the ideal plan. Placing the trax at the gateway center is not only the most ideal place in terms of creating a logical flow, but it also allows the frontage section of the terminal to be expanded west and east, which is part of the master plan for increasing the capacity of the airport. Putting trax on the north side of terminal drive is stupid and user-hostile.

The airport trax has been in planning since 1999. The SLCDA knew that UTA was building trax to the airport since 1999 (and knew that they wanted to since 1993). UTA knew that the SLCDA wanted to build a new airport since 1999 as well, when the preliminary master plans were released showing this terminal concept (although a bit more gutsy in its execution). Both of these projects were being consulted upon in 2011, before the airport TRAX was even completed. They knew all along that they were going to have to move the terminal station, and yet UT-fucking-A never made provisions to do so. I love public transportation and I take TRAX to work every day but the way that UTA is managing their finances is poisoning Utah's public perception of public transit, which is unfortunate, because as UT continues to grow at phenomenal rates inside of a small mountain valley, people are going to have to find somewhere to live. But UTA could not have managed to set aside the funds for this modification that they explicitly knew they would have to do since 2011. And this could have been picked up by the SLCDA if Delta hadn't lobbied the state legislature to bar the SLCDA from spending on public transportation specifically so that UTA couldn't pawn the cost off onto the department of airports, which had until the TRP began more than 1bn dollars and was the only major airport in the US to be debt free, and IIRC, the only airport with more than 1bn.

The entire reason that they want to place TRAX at the gateway center is the whole point that they are building a new airport; to avoid gates that are only flexible for one aircraft class. If they place trax to the north of terminal drive, 4-5 gates will be restricted to regional jet usage only. And the TRAX will essentially terminate in the basement of the terminal, next to international baggage claim and FIS inspection. Stupid stupid stupid. This project represents like 3 percent of the cost of the airport. Just pay to do it right, my god.

This is such an interesting clash between the well-run SLCDA (thank you maureen riley) and the horribly mismanaged UTA (shame on you greg hughes). All I can hope is that the "spending = bad" hyperfrugalistic doesn't permeate to yet another public works project, stunting its useful life by decades.

jubguy3 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:41 pm

November 15, 2017

Started excavation for the elevated roadway
Continued steel erection for central terminal
Averages 745 workers on site per day

jubguy3 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:48 pm

Photo Update

Plate girders installed for the steel erection of the terminal

660-ton liebherr cranes being used for the terminal steel erection

Iron workers on plate girders

ADM94 · Fri Nov 17, 2017 10:03 pm

jubguy3 wrote:
ADM94 wrote:
PDX757 wrote:
SLC public agencies seem to be very good about posting updates on large projects. I remember when Trax and frontrunner were being extended a few years ago the UTA website was updated at least once a week with pictures and what work was being done.

That reminds me, lately there's been talk of UTA changing the design of the relocated TRAX station at the new airport. Instead of building a track that will follow the elevated roadway up to a platform integrated into the terminal, they're hoping to build a detached platform at ground level. This article gives some more details:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/201 ... asic-plan/

In my opinion that would be the ideal plan. Placing the trax at the gateway center is not only the most ideal place in terms of creating a logical flow, but it also allows the frontage section of the terminal to be expanded west and east, which is part of the master plan for increasing the capacity of the airport. Putting trax on the north side of terminal drive is stupid and user-hostile.

The airport trax has been in planning since 1999. The SLCDA knew that UTA was building trax to the airport since 1999 (and knew that they wanted to since 1993). UTA knew that the SLCDA wanted to build a new airport since 1999 as well, when the preliminary master plans were released showing this terminal concept (although a bit more gutsy in its execution). Both of these projects were being consulted upon in 2011, before the airport TRAX was even completed. They knew all along that they were going to have to move the terminal station, and yet UT-fucking-A never made provisions to do so. I love public transportation and I take TRAX to work every day but the way that UTA is managing their finances is poisoning Utah's public perception of public transit, which is unfortunate, because as UT continues to grow at phenomenal rates inside of a small mountain valley, people are going to have to find somewhere to live. But UTA could not have managed to set aside the funds for this modification that they explicitly knew they would have to do since 2011. And this could have been picked up by the SLCDA if Delta hadn't lobbied the state legislature to bar the SLCDA from spending on public transportation specifically so that UTA couldn't pawn the cost off onto the department of airports, which had until the TRP began more than 1bn dollars and was the only major airport in the US to be debt free, and IIRC, the only airport with more than 1bn.

The entire reason that they want to place TRAX at the gateway center is the whole point that they are building a new airport; to avoid gates that are only flexible for one aircraft class. If they place trax to the north of terminal drive, 4-5 gates will be restricted to regional jet usage only. And the TRAX will essentially terminate in the basement of the terminal, next to international baggage claim and FIS inspection. Stupid stupid stupid. This project represents like 3 percent of the cost of the airport. Just pay to do it right, my god.

This is such an interesting clash between the well-run SLCDA (thank you maureen riley) and the horribly mismanaged UTA (shame on you greg hughes). All I can hope is that the "spending = bad" hyperfrugalistic doesn't permeate to yet another public works project, stunting its useful life by decades.

Agreed, I thought that article lacked a lot of context, but it covered the basics. I think the biggest drawback to the current station is that it's so disconnected from the rest of the airport, especially T2. The new airport is the perfect opportunity to integrate it with the gateway center, which would be more appealing and probably improve ridership. UTA's known about the project and cost for a long time now, so I don't really buy the cost argument, either. Especially if they want to change it later, it'll cost more to build a ground-level station now and move it later than to just build the raised platform now. My problem with UTA has always been that they have such limited service, as much as I'd love to not drive everywhere, taking the bus would double or triple travel times and I'd have to drive to get to Trax or Frontrunner, which sort of defeats the purpose. I wish they'd put more into their planning.

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