The Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) recently opened its new US$438-million Central Utility Plant (CUP), a modern and environmentally friendly facility that is 25-percent more energy efficient than the 50-year-old plant it replaces.
AECOM served as program and construction manager for the project and also provided detailed program and construction management planning for this design-build project.
“AECOM is proud to be part of this remarkable project, which included meeting the challenge of keeping the sixth-busiest airport in the world seamlessly operational during the entire construction period,” said Daniel McKelvie, AECOM’s program manager. “Considered the first sustainable utility plant at a U.S. airport, the CUP project combined environmentally friendly design and green construction practices to not only benefit travelers, the environment and local communities, but also to capture some truly impressive benefits — such as an estimated US$7 million in annual electrical and natural gas cost savings and the ability to provide the equivalent of powering 9,100 homes through the electricity created by the combustion turbine generators at peak capacity.”
The CUP facility at LAX includes a new, 1.6-million-gallon thermal energy-storage tank; new maintenance shops and offices for plant personnel; a new, underground hot and cold water piping-distribution network to serve passenger terminals and other buildings; as well as new plant equipment, combustion gas turbines, heat-recovery steam generators, cooling towers, chillers and boilers, ancillary pumps and three electrical sub-stations.
The project also included the replacement of cooling and heating equipment in passenger terminals and buildings ? involving a new facility monitoring and control system utilizing centralized cooling and heating controls ? as well as the installation of a computerized building-automation system for each of the terminals in the Central Terminal Area. Additionally, an 8.4-megawatt cogeneration plant consisting of gas-turbine-driven generators is providing electricity, with its waste heat being reused for heating and to power additional steam-driven chillers.
The 75,000-square-foot CUP was built in accordance with Los Angeles World Airports’ Sustainable Design and Construction Guidelines, with nearly 75 percent of all construction and demolition waste materials being recycled during construction and reusing or recycling all major equipment that was used to build the new CUP — including crushing nearly 3,000 tons of concrete from the demolition to be made into road base for use across California.
About AECOM
AECOM is a premier, fully integrated professional and technical services firm positioned to design, build, finance and operate infrastructure assets around the world for public- and private-sector clients. With nearly 100,000 employees — including architects, engineers, designers, planners, scientists and management and construction services professionals — serving clients in over 150 countries around the world, AECOM is ranked as the #1 engineering design firm by revenue in Engineering News-Record magazine’s annual industry rankings, and has been recognized by Fortune magazine as a World’s Most Admired Company. The firm is a leader in all of the key markets that it serves, including transportation, facilities, environmental, energy, oil and gas, water, high-rise buildings and government. AECOM provides a blend of global reach, local knowledge, innovation and technical excellence in delivering customized and creative solutions that meet the needs of clients’ projects. A Fortune 500 firm, AECOM companies, including URS Corporation and Hunt Construction Group, had revenue of approximately $19 billion during the 12 months ended March 31, 2015. More information on AECOM and its services can be found at aecom.com.