Plans to replace the interterminal AirTrain at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey are moving forward with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey selecting Stantec to design key facilities for the passenger transportation project of 2 billion dollars.
Stantec’s work on the project includes the design of a maintenance and control facility, connections between the AirTrain and Terminals B and C, and the closure of the current AirTrain, says Kevin Doyle, the firm’s vice president and a leader in the US aviation industry. “It’s a diverse group of projects that we work on at this airport over the life of this program,” he says.
The amount of the Stantec contract was not disclosed.
The existing AirTrain, which opened in 1996, is a monorail-style people mover on an elevated guideway that connects three airport terminals, a parking lot and a train station where passengers can connect to trains NJ Transit or Amtrak. Port Authority leaders say the existing AirTrain carries about 12 million passengers a year but is nearing the end of its useful life.
The Port Authority plans to replace the current AirTrain with a 2.5-mile automated passenger transportation system.
Facility design comes with a number of limitations, says Ken Anderson, Stantec’s vice president and civic sector leader. These include meeting the operational parameters of the AirTrain itself and the spaces available at the airport facilities. The area is also a flood zone and must meet safety and functionality requirements.
“So this one has all these great parameters that allow us to challenge ourselves and really think creatively about how we put this all together, but also create a beautiful state-of-the-art facility,” says Anderson.
In December, the Port Authority announced that it had selected German cableway system manufacturer Doppelmayr Group to design and build the system to transport people and their vehicles, then operate it for 20 years. The contract is worth $570 million for the system and then an estimated $385 million for operation and maintenance.
Doppelmayr builds rail-based but rope-powered automated people movers. Its past projects in the United States include the Aria Express streetcar in Las Vegas and the Oakland Airport Connector in California. The technology is part of what makes the project exciting to work on, Anderson says.
The Port Authority plans to open the new AirTrain in 2029. A request for qualification is open for contractors wishing to be pre-qualified to work on the project.
The project is part of the airport’s wider redevelopment plans. Its new 1 million square meter Terminal A opened last year. The Port Authority has also taken preliminary steps to improve regional connectivity at the airport railway station and is working on a master plan for development up to 2065.
“This project is one of many pieces of the puzzle for the redevelopment of Newark Airport,” says Doyle. “We’re playing a very important role for us, but it’s small compared to what the next 20 years hold for the airport.”
