Chris Woods News
Memphis Airport Board Approves Nearly $60 million in Projects
This article originally appeared in the Commercial Appeal
Memphis airport board approves nearly $60 million in projects most travelers won’t notice
Memphis International Airport officials approved nearly $60 million in construction contracts Thursday for projects ranging from rental car maintenance to new restrooms in A Concourse.
The airport board also approved $9.4 million for planning and development consultants, including the first airport master plan since Memphis lost its passenger hub.
The approvals marked the beginning of a robust round of capital improvements that will lead to a modernized B Concourse in 2021.
Travelers won’t come in direct contact with most of what was approved Thursday. The most customer-facing item was for some of the work that will prepare A Concourse to shoulder about half the airport’s passenger volume during upcoming construction on B Concourse.
The approved contracts are:
- Up to $4.3 million for Parsons Transportation Group Inc. to assist the airport’s development department with inspection and program management on construction projects.
- $1,561,058 for A&B Construction Company to build restrooms and prepare the apron, where planes park at gates, for Delta Air Lines’ pending move to A Concourse.
- $25,639,700 for Chris Woods Construction Company to build a consolidated rental car maintenance facility off Airways west of the airfield. The facility will clear the way for rental car companies to vacate property north of Democrat next to the FedEx hub.
- $450,000 for The Crump Firm to oversee construction of the rental car maintenance compound.
- $4,681,725 for Jacobsen/Daniels Associates to prepare a new master plan.
- $22,788,092 for Chris-Hill Construction Co. for bridge and site construction as part of a larger project to upgrade and centralize plane de-icing.
- $178,493 for Schneider Electric Inc. to install closed circuit video cameras and electronic license plate recognition in the airport’s rental car area.
He said the master planning effort will include input from the public and airport business partners. It will address such questions as what to do about parking facilities in an era of Uber and Lyft car-sharing services and self-driving vehicle technology.
“This is an exciting process where we start to chart our path for the future,” Brockman said.
The contracts came with varying levels of participation by minority and women-owned and local business.
Jacobsen/Daniels and A&B Construction are minority companies, Brockman said. Other minority participation percentages ranged from Chris Woods Construction’s 24 percent to Chris-Hill’s 39 percent.
The only company not showing minority participation was Schneider. Brockman said there was no diversity requirement because the services are considered a specialty and Schneider was selected through a national cooperative purchasing program.
Board member Darrell Thomas voted against the contract, saying he thought minority companies should have gotten an opportunity to compete for it.