For contractor Hensel Phelps, lead designer Corgan and program director William Manning, the roughly $470 million expansion of Houston’s William P. Hobby International Airport West Concourse means coming full circle.
The team had built the original five-gate international terminal and federal inspection station facilities for the Houston airport system, completing them in 2015. Now, the assembled team is adding seven new gates, a modern baggage handling system with two additional carousels, and a weather canopy that connects the parking lot to the terminal.
Hensel Phelps began work on the at-risk construction manager project in 2024, surpassing the lobby structure last fall. Completion is scheduled for 2027.
“We’re building on a lot of what we implemented back then,” says Corgan CEO Jonathan Massey. Noting that the original hall achieved a 5-star Skytrax rating, he adds: “This project carries forward the same principles of flow and architecture that provide intuitive orientation. We use light, volume and edges to direct people, rather than just signage.”
The design includes “a large space at the end of the lobby that has an angle, a sharp triangle,” notes Massey. “It will act as a great arrow directing the people.” Travelers who do not need to collect their bags can continue directly out of the lobby; those who do will turn left, he says.
Manning, who is leading the Southwest Airlines project as he did the original room, calls it “the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” It has three main components: installing the 30-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide, 150-foot-long canopy; build an outdoor square; reform the baggage claim area; and install the Leonardo baggage handling system.
Instead of the typical conveyor belt system, “this is a cross-belt sorting system,” says Massey. “There are a series of small vehicles that run on a rail. Each vehicle carries a bag. When it reaches the right place, it pulls the bag down a chute to collect it.” The system requires less maintenance and labor and can handle multiple types of luggage more easily, according to the company’s website.
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“We closed a door and built a building to handle all the projection of the new system,” says Manning. Crews will also construct another temporary building to house system units. “We’re putting in a second mainline system and another one for oversized bags, then we can go in and take out the old baggage handling system,” he says.
The new canopy will replace one that was blown down by a hurricane years ago. “For years, the big columns stayed there,” says Massey. With Hobby’s proximity to the Johnson Space Center, “we used computational design to place a starry sky motif” on the new canopy, he adds. “In terms of sense of place, it’s about Houston.”
High-tech tools
The team is using Boston Dynamics’ robot dog Spot to survey the site, 3D printing of ground features and a platform from technology provider Cupix that creates 3D models from photos and videos.
“I [told Cupix] It would be nice if we had the ability on one screen to see three panels to see photos, model building information, and floor plans to check progress,” says Manning. The salesman started developing this skill a year before construction began, he says. “You can go walk through the floor plan, and it rotates the photos and the model. For example, you can now see if the conduits are in or not.”
Corgan’s Manning, Minnick and Ben Kleiner inspect the job site with Spot. Photo courtesy of Hensel Phelps
Gary Perrin, chief operating officer of Hensel Phelps, says using technology tools is a process of continuous learning and improvement. “We’re trying to learn what else we can do in this project. How much information can we put into the system? Can we see where all the switches are? In the aerial inserts, can we determine where something should be hung?”
The team also learned to find places for the robot dog to recharge, he notes.
“Spot performs weekly progress walks autonomously through integration with FieldAI,” Hensel Phelps project manager Andrew Minnick wrote in an email response. “This combination allows the robot to navigate through and around the dynamic construction site without entering hazardous areas while capturing the latest progress. The goal of the solution is to capture consistent images and automatically upload them to a cloud server when docked. Hensel Phelps uses it for BIM comparisons in the field, progress tracking, and facility monitoring, allowing the project team to monitor progress and identify deviations with greater accuracy.
“Beyond photographic documentation, Spot can carry a ground laser scanner to capture overburden and wall conditions. These scans are then imported into the coordinated model to validate the facility’s accuracy before the systems are hidden. Field AI works closely with Hensel Phelps on a weekly basis to expand Spot’s capabilities, leveraging AI tools and the direct workflow of site personnel to align with the actual workflow”.
The 3D printer is like “a battery-powered lawnmower that prints the walls,” Manning says. “If there’s a metal spot on the wall, it shows. If there’s plaster, draw another line. Draw where the receptacles are; floor colors, beds to install in there…it saves a lot of time because the plaster guy doesn’t have to send staff over there with a tape measure to point out a place to start. [building] a wall.”
The Hewlett-Packard SitePrint robot “enables automated printing of grid lines, wall locations, including drywall and trim boundaries, door openings, room identification, and MEP wall penetration locations,” adds Minnick. “The system can establish multiple trade disciplines simultaneously while maintaining survey accuracy by integrating with a robotic total station tied to project control. When properly sequenced, the technology significantly compresses design time and improves accuracy between trades.”
Manning says that for the roughly $150,000 spent on 3D printing, “we think we’ll get more than double that value back.”
Photo courtesy of Hensel Phelps
Because of the three main and separate elements of the project, the stage has been a major challenge. “It’s widespread,” says Perrin. In addition, work such as the installation of the canopy and work on the baggage claim roof must be carried out while airport operations continue. And with the World Cup coming to Houston this summer, “we don’t want to be in a major construction phase during the event,” he says. “When it’s over, we’ll be back [to active construction.”
He adds, “Back in 2014, [Manning]me and Corgan were part of the team that built the first international gates. [Southwest] had always planned for an extension. Now, a decade after the first project, we have come together again to finish what we started.”
