Pittsburgh International Airport (Pit) is giving the final touches A new $ 1.7 billion terminal That will open at some time in October. A joint business of architecture and engineering companies Gensler, HDR and Luis Vidal + Architects designed the terminal, and all systems and areas have been rigorously completed and tested.
“The construction and operational preparation are not the same,” said Daniel Bryan, the consultant who leads the Pit’s preparation and operational transition team.
Before the official opening date can be established and announced, PIT will carry out two public trial days, or dress trials, where volunteers act as passengers to help make sure everything, and all, is really ready for the big day.
The first test of the entire terminal will take place on Saturday, September 20 and will include about 1,000 of the 18,000 people who responded to the initial call of the airport for volunteers.
“We want to recreate day 1 before it really happens,” Bryan said.
The volunteers will receive scripts to continue for their airport trip. And as the passengers with fishing tickets travel on a Peak Peak travel day, they will do all the things that true passengers do when they travel from the sidewalk to the door: verify bags, skis and golf clubs, in addition to going through the security control point. They will simply address any plane.
Bryan and his team are confident that all the central systems that have been tested and re -testing in isolation will work. “This will be the first time we will see that the building comes alive,” he said, so they will be alert for acoustic -related problems, the audio level of the public address system, the goldsmith and the indications, as well as the collection of comments of the voluntary travelers. In addition to testing all airport systems, Bryan said that the tests also provide all airport staff to practice, learn and generate confidence in their equipment.
“When the first passengers enter the door on day 1, we want our people not to know what to do, we want them to know they have already done it,” he said.
The objectives were very similar in San Diego International Airport (San), That he made a passenger test day on Sunday, September 14, before the opening of September 23 of his new Terminal 1 of $ 3.8 billion full of light and art designed by Gensler in association with Turner-Flatiron.
Reward your entrance tray with the TPG Diario Bulletin
Join more than 700,000 readers to receive news, in -depth guides and exclusive agreements of TPG experts
Angela Shafer-Payne, Director of Development of San, trusted that all systems would work because the airport required contractors to deliver each system in operational mode.
“For example, the luggage management system only had a verification list of 8,000 pages. And they ran thousands of bags through the system for weeks.
A thousand volunteers received cards that told them what type of passenger would be playing, for example, a business traveler or a family of four, and they were directed to park in the parking lot, find a specific airline counter, verify the luggage, go through security, visit a concession and, perhaps, the area of relief of the pets, and reach their door.
San’s Day Surveys are still counting, but all comments will be valuable “because, although we have all lived and breathed this project for so many years and I, for example, could find all bathrooms with bandaged eyes,” said Shafer-Payne, there may be evaluators that indicate places where bathrooms (or other signage) is inadequate.
In fact, San Airport learned about the evaluators that the paging system was too noisy in some areas and not strong enough in others, and that a better signage for the outdoor dining platform and the large luggage belt and the large luggage belt was needed.
But the signaling was only one of the elements that the volunteers commented after the day of the public test of the Kansas City International Airport (DCL) held before the opening of Its new $ 1.5 billion terminal in 2023.
Although the day of the test took place on Valentine’s Day, “the tickets for the event were super hot,” said Justin Meyer, deputy director of Aviation, Marketing and Development of Air Services of the airport.
Designed, planned and designed by Skidder, Owings and Merrill, the new independent airport was one of the most visible infrastructure projects that the city had undertaken in about 50 years. “So there was much desire and civic pride to be among the first people to try and see it,” said Meyer.
Testing terminal technology “with volume” was one of the main objectives of the trial.
“We wanted to make sure that the scanners were scanning, that the systems were talking to each other, that the ticket printers were printing and that the bags put in the system could be delivered to the correct luggage belt, things like that,” said Meyer.
All systems worked well, but Meyer said that some signage was adjusted in response to the feedback of volunteers, and some changes were made in the bathrooms just after the opening.
“The day of the terminal test, but then significantly once we opened, we were discovering that paper towels were crushing, and we ended up with pieces of paper towel all over the floor. Now we have a different and more lasting paper towel,” Meyer said. Soap dispensers were also dispensed too much soap; A remedied problem with recalibration.
Then there was the problem of many volunteers of the day of trial that were missing their simulated flight.
The script on the day of the test asked the volunteers to pass through the airport and arrive at their door for their scheduled flight. “But everyone was so excited to be in the terminal and walk, that many people were late or did not show up for their flight,” said Meyer. “So it was a fun conclusion for us.”
Related reading:
