The $4 billion launch of LaGuardia Airport’s new Terminal B Arrivals and Departures Hall, which opened June 10, is already garnering accolades. The use of a 3D laser scanning proved to be the least disruptive to the 4 year project schedule.
From an article in Construction Dive by Joe Bousquin.
From its soaring glass façade and 60-foot-high ceilings to artist Sarah Sze’s two-story hanging spherical artwork, the grand sweep of the 850,000-square-foot facility, known in aviation parlance as a headhouse, is enough to soften even the most jaded business traveler’s frayed nerves, especially those hardened by the old LaGuardia’s cramped, oppressive feel, which handled a record 31 million passengers in 2019.
But for the Skanska USA team tasked with bringing to fruition one of the firm’s most complex projects ever, the devil was in thousands of details. To get this modern feat of engineering off the ground, Skanska — the lead partner of the Skanska-Walsh joint venture responsible for the overall construction and design of the project — turned to tried-and-true as well as emerging construction technology.
That technology ranged from aerial photogrammetry to a 4D scheduling model, multiple 360-degree cameras that created more than 15,000 “over capture” photos in a single building and detailed laser scanning to ensure the as-built environment lined up with the project’s original 3D model.
“Would we actually be able to build this project if we didn’t have the technology we have now? I don’t think so,” said Val Tzvetkov, senior regional manager for virtual design and construction at Skanska. “I don’t think we’d be able to build it without the digital tools we had. Or, it would have added 10 years to our schedule.”
Tzvetkov and Beata Lizak, Skanska’s director of survey, were responsible for maintaining and updating the data fed into the project’s 4D model, which overlaid scheduling information and components onto a 3D design. In tandem, the model and schedule, which contained more than 50,000 line items, were constantly evolving throughout the four-year project.
“LaGuardia is all about the logistics and scheduling and then reassessing,” said Lizak. “Because let’s keep in mind, this was a live, functional airport as we were building. We had 27 different phases where we had to move the roads and direct traffic. You couldn’t just build this from west to east, as ordinary construction would go.”
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