L-MOD Case Study. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. New South McCarthy Synergy, A Joint Venture

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1 L-MOD Case Study Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport New South McCarthy Synergy, A Joint Venture

2 Overview The Landside Modernization Project at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is part of a 20 year $6 Billion Dollar Capital Improvement Plan managed by Atlanta s Department of Aviation. The Landside Modernization Project s main scope is the improvement of the exterior of the world s busiest airport. The main feature of the project is the installation of two large steel canopies that span 870 feel along the front of each domestic terminals over 8 lanes of traffic, covering an area greater than 3 football fields. The 8 lanes of traffic per side service passengers being dropped off or picked up as well as those accessing the crosswalks to the parking garage. In the next phase of the project a full re-roof and exterior façade replacement is planned. The airport was originally built in 1977 and the main canopy supports are located in a slim corridor between the existing parking garage and the upper roadway supports and lower roadway tunnel entrances. Within the slim corridor are the pedestrian walkways which are replaced with new and temporary to not conflict with the foundations and piers needed for the canopy as well as escalator and elevator vertical transportation for the parking garage that is to be demolished and/or modified. In addition to coordinating escalator, elevator, and walkway shutdowns and openings for pedestrians, during the canopy erection vehicular access on the upper road way will require partial day and full night shutdowns. Other items located within the slim corridor that also requires demolition, modifications, or a complete replacement include Parking Toll Booth structures, Vehicular ramps for Parking Exits, Delta s Sky Cap and Full Service Check in on the Lower Curbside, Fiber, Storm/Sewer, and Baggage Handling Equipment. Once New South McCarthy Synergy (NSMS) was selected as the general contractor, the Construction Drawings Issued, and a Preliminary schedule outlined, NSMS quickly realized the 100+ page schedule wasn t as useful in discussing, coordinating, evaluating, and communicating the construction plan without a 4D rendering. Project Information & Workflow Project Name: Landside Modernization Project at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Company: New South McCarthy Synergy, A Joint Venture the General Contractor Type: Transportation Project Cost: $163 Enabling & Phase 1(Canopies) & $102.5 Phase 2(Re-Roof, Exterior Façade, misc.) Time Frame: For Enabling & Phase years. Phase 2 is pending release. Work Flow: Our workflow is simple in that the 4D process is performed completely by one of the schedulers for the project. Once the models were received from the Architect & Steel Subcontractor, a NSMS VDC team member separated the larger models into quadrants as well as grouped steel parts into Groups to assist selecting the resources to assign to a task. Once complete the objects were tied to schedule activities. With videos generated or exported and provided to the General Superintendent. We then reviewed, discovered items that would assist the model & other s understanding the process, and then had the VDC team create shoring towers and temporary ramps to then incorporate in the next file. The 4D model is updated every two weeks and gets used most strongly by the General Superintendent and is occasionally provide to the Owner to assist their discussions with 26 different stakeholders/airport operations groups. We found that 4D benefits us in 3 key ways: Schedule Review, Communication Tool, and Stakeholder Communication.

3 How We re using Synchro The first use of the 4D simulation was created within a timespan of a few days. Ken McBroom flew out to the project and worked with Emily Shirley both creating the animation and training Emily to take over the project s synchro effort. Ken arrived late Monday and by Thursday afternoon they were presenting the first pass video to the project executives and owner s representative. After the video was played the NSMS project executive made the following comment in regards to the steel sequence Your video is wrong, to which Ken and Emily responded that no, Our video is right, your schedule is wrong since we used the P6 logic to create the video. The issue showed a major steel sequence bust in the subcontractor s schedule that we incorporated into our own schedule. With that first animation, our team began a frequent 4D review to assist schedule development. The second use of 4D was to discuss an opportunity for value engineering. The original design drawings showed 2 new Elevators including foundations, shaft, and cabs) and full demolition of the existing parking garage s escalator and elevator structure. The 4D schedule visually showed how the extensive time frame for the new elevator, demolition of the existing structure, and foundations for the canopy would cause over a 3-month gap in the middle canopy erection sequence. NSMS proposed saving time and money by utilizing the existing elevator shafts by modifying the top of the precast and roofing, thus lowering the highest point. This removed the conflict between the steel diagrid for the canopy and the existing elevator structure. While working for the VE to be accepted NSMS was also aware that a 1 month gap would remain. NSMS worked with subcontractors (still in bidding phase) to work thru a detailed demolition plan to shorten demolition thus allowing steel erection to be continuous. The third use of 4D was for logistical discussions with the Owner s 26 stakeholders which includes the airlines. The result was a well-coordinated plan for the existing, temporary, and new pedestrian walkway ramps from the parking garage to the Terminals. Two additional ramp was added to the North Terminal and one to the South to assist demolition as well as provide adequate handicap accessible pedestrian walkways from the parking garage to the Terminals.

4 The fourth use of 4D was for evaluating the overall schedule planning. As the client s stakeholders became more aware of the project s overall impact to pedestrians and vehicular traffic. Additional vehicular traffic analysis and planning for car services like Lyft and Uber were needed. Afterward the client and stakeholders were then able to better evaluate the amount of lane closures that could occur at one time without negatively impacting operations. The impact of this was that the canopies would need to occur one after another with zero concurrent lane closure impacts from the North Canopy to the South Canopy. By stakeholders becoming more familiar with our project s 4D schedule they became more cognizant of the project s impact to daily operations. The fifth use of 4D is currently ongoing as we evaluate schedule opportunities for the South Terminal Canopy Erection to occur twice as fast. We re using Synchro to show how this scenario would impact the terminal s vestibule entrances and the pedestrian ramps at the parking garage. Outcomes, Challenges, & Benefits On LMOD what will make our team successful is our ability to communicate with the owner and provide information to enable positive discussion with the 26 stakeholders operating daily. Internally our team is divided into 11 pods with each responsible for a portion of the project. With 11 pods updating individually and major traffic plan changes occurring to allow the Canopies to be erected communication is everything. Our team had never used Synchro or any other 4D tool before and we ve found our team pulling it up and pausing it at different intervals to communicate what will happen or how it will happen differently. The original 4D was created in October 2016 however the schedule at the time wasn t finalized so after activity ID s were changed for the preliminary baseline submission in December the 4D model had to be fully re-linked. The 4D model is updated every two weeks. We d estimate that there are 160 people interacting with the 4D in some way. One of the biggest challenges we have is with 11 pods or small teams operating independently the 4D provides an internal communication tool as well as a verification opportunity. We use the 4D for both overall uses like what is mentioned above as well as for our 6 week lookaheads. Number of Activities: 6675 (Phase 1) Number of 3D Objects: 154,335 with 59,196 tied to a construction activity Number of Models: 28

5 The most compelling impact of the 4D model on the project is it s use to show activities in a threeminute video. We found that airport ops and airlines had difficulty understanding the gross impact to the passenger experience whether vehicular or pedestrian with the use of the 4D schedule we could overcome obstacles quicker than we d expected. It truly enabled a team effort in solving a problem because a problem was identified and understood quicker by the 26 stakeholder/owner representatives who aren t as familiar with construction or able to review such a large drawing package. The utilization of 4D Scheduling on the $265.5M CPTC Modernization Landside project at ATL has provided our team the ability to compile a significant amount of technical information and sequencing logic into an easy to follow format that has enabled us to troubleshoot operational impacts, develop improved strategies for project implementation and most importantly effectively communicate to airport executives and stakeholders. The NSMS team has not just supported this effort, they have successfully led it. It has been a pleasure working with their scheduling experts and operational leaders. Ambika Burda, Senior Project Manager for ATL Next, Lead Project Manager