An award-winning transformation of New Zealand’s southernmost airport
A significant upgrade
This complex and exciting project involved a full replacement of the existing airport building, by the construction of a brand-new 3,000m² terminal, including check-in, baggage make-up, offices, café, public areas, koru lounge and baggage reclaim. In addition, major upgrades to the apron and landside layouts were orchestrated, and the roading system entirely re-configured, with a new double lane kerbside and reconfigured and expanded carpark.
An ambitious process
We were engaged in 2011 following selection of the team we assembled through a design competition style selection process. We then managed the concept design development and business case development phase to June 2013. From there we managed the full design, procurement and construction stages of this rewarding project.
We developed the basic terminal concept in-house, driven by the need to maintain full time airport operations. This challenge required us to present a complex two-stage process, first completing half of the new terminal building, followed by the overnight transfer of airport operations from the old terminal – in time for the first flight the next morning – and then demolishing the old building to make way for the construction of the second half of the new terminal.
Points of Interest
- The complex staging of the project was a fundamental design driver and was developed by us early in the design process in order to facilitate construction of a new terminal on the site of the old one, whilst maintaining continuous airport operations.
- A full-time construction manager coordinated on-site works, maintaining daily flight operations and the needs of many airport tenants whilst at the same time managing the general public, traffic and site access around frequent changes to the road layout and building access.
- We divided the procurement into several main contracts separating landside, terminal and airside works whilst running the overall programming and coordination.