Calgary International Airport – International Facilities Project Terminal Expansion

Calgary International Airport – International Facilities Project Terminal Expansion - Render

  • Client

    Calgary Airport Authority 

  • Region

    Calgary, AB

  • Area Office

    Calgary

  • Year Completed

    2015 

  • Size

    2,200,000 sq. ft.  

The Story

EllisDon is the Construction Manager for the International Facilities Project (IFP) at the Calgary International Airport.

This project will provide The Calgary Airport Authority increased capacity to meet projected international and transborder demand through to 2025. Upon completion, the IFP will double the size of the existing terminal building.

The expansion will add 22 bridge positions with capability for future expansion to a total of 29 bridge positions. It will be one of the largest projects in the history of Alberta. The five-level project consists of approximately 3,178,000 cubic feet of concrete and 8000 tonnes of structural steel — 2000 tonnes of which are architecturally exposed.

The IFP project also includes the extension of the existing departures roadway, an added parallel curbside roadway, a new waste handling facility, over 70 new shops and services (within the new terminal) and a podium structure for the airside hotel (currently under construction).

The structure/shell for this hotel was completed by EllisDon as part of the IFP project. EllisDon is also currently completing the interior fit-out of the Delta YYC Hotel under a separate contract for the hotel developer.

This 300-room hotel will be connected directly to the IFP project. In addition, EllisDon has recently been awarded the Construction Management contract to complete the new YYC Connectivity Corridor project that will connect the existing terminal to the new IFP terminal. This new project, along with the hotel interior fit-out project, has been taken into consideration in the IFP project’s overall logistics planning and commissioning.

The IFP project combines state-of-the art technology and ingenuity as well as wide-ranging sustainable building construction practices, design, and materials.

EllisDon and the consultant (DIALOG) have been utilizing Building Information Modeling (BIM) for this project to primarily detect scope clashes and seek remedy in the early stages, thus saving time and money. With the tight design tolerances, BIM (along with many hours of coordination from the team) has already demonstrated its value at the front end of the project with the installation and the integration of the precast support columns (Lafarge), structural steel (Supermétal) and curtainwall installations (Contract Glaziers) for the building envelope.

EllisDon's innovation and ingenuity is further demonstrated by the use of the F360 formwork system (developed by EllisDon) on the IFP project. This formwork system is suitable for all types of construction projects ranging from residential to commercial and civil.

The key to its success is based on the fact that it is comprised of very few components. This keeps it simple, while at the same time it has extremely high strength but yet, it weighs very little. The aluminum supports for this system allow for the highest adjustable range and the highest load capacity of any system in its class in the world. Configurability, strength, and simplicity all create a formwork system that improves productivity.