Gibbs Construction served as the lead local general contractor construction manager in the joint venture CMAR partnership of Hunt Gibbs Boh Metro for the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport New North Terminal. The highly anticipated transformation of the 60-year-old airport became the first municipal CMAR project in the state of Louisiana.
This new crescent-shaped 35-gate airport terminal, approximately 1,000,000 square feet, spreads across 26 acres of reclaimed swampland. The three concourse mega-structure is comprised of 12,000 tons of structural steel, 55,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 170,000 square feet of glass curtainwall.
The nearly $1 billion new terminal includes multiple tech-forward parking garages, surface parking lots, airline check-in counters and self-service kiosks. Its design to ease customer experience features an open-concept design of centralized local restaurants and retail shops, a new consolidated security checkpoint, and a complex multi-level inbound and outbound in-line baggage system.
Due to the poor existing soil conditions, the entire facility is supported by more than 10,000 precast concrete piles, driven to an average depth of 100 feet. To mitigate settlement, the site was surcharged by hauling in 2 million cubic yards of nearby Mississippi River sand requiring the delivery of 460 to 600 truckloads six nights a week for nearly a year. The worse-than-anticipated soil conditions and the discovery of several underground century-old cypress tree stump obstructions led to resequencing of work and partial redesign of foundation, paving, and sewer systems.
Preliminary work began with Gibbs’ in-house engineering staff to determine coordinates in GPS technology establishing the precise locations of 5,893 anchor bolts for our trained field team to install by using advanced scanning and optical technology. Several months into construction, our team seamlessly adapted to the owner-driven addition of a third concourse, expanding the project by nearly 33%.
In addition to our CMAR joint venture role, Gibbs Construction provided services as a concrete subcontractor for the new north terminal. This $40.8 million scope of work included 361 concrete columns ranging from 33 to 71 feet tall, and 987,372 square feet of concrete slabs, requiring a total of 5,312 truckloads equaling 53,121 cubic yards of concrete.
New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport now serves the traveling public with a modern world-class terminal complex, ranking as one of the nation’s best large airports. Gibbs is honored to have served on our state’s first CMAR team, making history in the evolution of municipal projects.
Project Facts
Cost
$901.3M
Delivery Method
CMAR
Size
972,000 sf
Owner
City of New Orleans/ New Orleans Aviation Board
Architect
Crescent City Aviation Team
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