Industry Insider

In each issue, IQ introduces one of Garver’s leading experts charged with delivering infrastructure development and improvement projects to communities across the country. Below, Midwest Aviation Leader Mark Williams, PE, touches on Garver’s role in providing civil airside design for the new terminal project at the Kansas City International Airport and what’s new for Garver Aviation in the Midwest region that includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Oklahoma.

How is the Kansas City International Airport project coming along?

It’s exciting to see a big dream come to reality for Kansas City and to know that our team was instrumental in developing it. I can already see progress when I fly out of there. You can see the shape of the old terminal with the removed concrete when you’re looking out of Terminal B, and the structural steel installed helps to envision the future terminal.

The civil airside design, our role in the project, was completed in March, and construction should begin in September. Though it has taken some time to be realized, the vision our city’s leadership showed for the new KCI terminal is coming to fruition, and those utilizing KCI are able to witness the design team’s efforts in helping to transform the airport into a modern single terminal facility.

How has the KCI project tested Garver, and how has it been rewarding?

It has many complex parts, which you would expect for a project of this magnitude. A lot of coordination has been required, and I think the biggest challenge is the fast-track design-build schedule. A lot of communication on design intent was needed. Every time a design change was made, we had to think about the impact on other disciplines and communicate quickly because of the schedule that we were under to get the design done.

We completed the design of the civil airside components in 12 months, when it would normally take at least 24.

How has your team delivered it in such a timeframe?

It’s been the team effort that’s existed throughout Garver. We’ve had more than 50 employees from our Aviation Team work on this project. But we’ve also collaborated with Garver’s Construction, Transportation, and Water teams. The greatest benefit is to the client. We were able to bring national expertise within Garver to solve challenges on one of the most complex aviation projects in the country — whether it’s the Water Team determining the best method to treat the higher concentration of glycol runoff that will result from this terminal configuration or utilizing our Bridge Team to design retaining walls that will support the apron for the new terminal; those walls are going to approach 30 feet tall.

In addition to the work from our aviation personnel, we’ve had more than 30 personnel from our other business lines help deliver this design. It’s incredible working with one of the largest civil airside design teams in the country with the ability to utilize as many of those resources as possible to solve complex problems in an accelerated timeframe.

What’s next for Garver Aviation in the Midwest?

It’s an exciting frontier for Garver Aviation, especially in the Midwest. We’ve added Sean McGraw in Oklahoma City. Sean is an Oklahoma native and Oklahoma State graduate who has a passion for working with the airports in that area. And we’ve also recently hired Roger Knobeloch to lead our new office in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Both Sean and Roger have familiarity within their respective geographic regions. That’s really important because we like our employees to know their areas better than anyone so that clients can trust them both personally and professionally. Sean and Roger allow Garver to provide responsive service in Oklahoma and Nebraska.