Owner: Northwest Arkansas Airport Authority
Architect: Wittenberg, Delony & Davidson

On July 18, 2005 Milestone Construction Company was awarded the contract for the Alice L. Walton Terminal Building – Baggage Claim Expansion.  This was the third major project that had been awarded to Milestone Construction Company since it was formed in November 2004 by partners Travis Ruff and Sam Hollis.  This project was very important to Milestone Construction Company with it’s location being at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport.  It was highly visible with approximately 500,000 customers flying in and out of this airport annually.  This project had numerous potential safety hazards including pedestrian and vehicular traffic, as well as, the federal and state security and issues dealing with potential security breaches.

The airport expansion included a 9,000 SF two story addition to the main terminal of the airport.  As with most additions, it was critical that the new addition match the existing facility in such a way that no one could tell it was added on at a later date.  The original terminal was built in 1997 and there were not any as-built drawings or close-out documents available for Milestone to refer to during construction (apparently they had been lost or misplaced).  The contract documents in most cases basically said to “match existing”.  This made it extremely difficult to match the finish items which included brick, precast, curtain wall, carpet, paint, decorative finishes, as well as mechanical and electrical items.  In addition to the architectural finishes, the structure itself is exposed and in most cases the structural engineer indicated to match existing regarding structural connections, size of components, etc. 

Jesse Adams, Milestone Construction Company’s Superintendent, rallied the various subcontractors and suppliers and began earthwork and demolition at the terminal.  As mentioned earlier, safety was our number one priority.  Jesse developed a plan with our fencing, lay-down areas and staging to accommodate the Owner’s needs and insure that all safety precautions were taken to maintain a safe project.

Once the earthwork and demolition had taken place, our concrete foundations and slab on grade work began.  A large portion of our work consisted of demolishing part of the existing underground concrete baggage tunnel at one end and extending the tunnel approximately 30 feet at the other.  The existing underground tunnel was approximately 10’ wide by 12’ tall and approximately 100’ long.   Since the airport had only one baggage conveyor and carrousel, it was imperative that the existing equipment remain in full operation at all times since flights with passengers were landing 24 hours a day 7 days a week.  This proved to be a huge challenge for Milestone due to the fact that the new baggage conveyor and equipment was to be installed directly above the existing conveyor in the same tunnel.  Milestone and our subcontractors were able to make all tie-ins and additions without disturbing the existing operations.

After the concrete was completed the structural steel erection began.  Part of our scope of work was to actually remove the existing corner column and steel girder beam that supported the entire corner of the existing two story building.  This had to be removed to allow for the baggage tunnel extension in our contract.  The entire corner of the existing building had to be shored up with temporary columns and beams to allow the work to proceed.  The offices directly above this area were occupied the entire time by airport management and TSA officials.  Milestone and our subcontractors were able to successfully remove and replace this column, girder beam and building extension without incident.

The next step was to enclose the building which would allow the baggage claim equipment and finishes to start.  This required very close coordination from Milestone between our subcontractors working on the exterior façade including the structural steel, curtain wall, masonry, metal stud framing and exterior insulated composite panels.

By the first of March 2006, the building was dried in and ready for the baggage claim equipment and finishes.  Soon after the baggage claim subcontractor started, it was obvious that they were going to be difficult to work with on our project.  They were from out of state and were working on several other airports around the country and unbeknownst to us, were struggling financially on other projects.  Milestone went to great lengths to coordinate their work and deliveries and even paid their suppliers direct to keep the work progressing.  In the end, Milestone had to terminate our contractual agreement with this subcontractor and hire another firm to work with our employees to complete their work. 

Despite the problems that we had with the baggage claim subcontractor, the Owner and Architect were very pleased with our work.  They asked us to finish out the shell space areas in the airport which added a new board room, kitchen and restroom via change order to our original contract.  The airport also negotiated two other projects with Milestone based on our performance including the Air Host Café Deli at the entry of the airport and renovating the previous smoking lounge into administrative offices for TSA.