Airport Experience® News - Food & Beverage Issue 2025

INDUSTRY INSIGHTS

“As the busiest airport in the world, we can’t shut down our operations for construction,” says Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s senior deputy general manager of infrastructure Frank Rucker. “It’s critical for our airlines and for our passengers that the expansion was deployed quickly—a blend of phased modular construction and traditional construction was the answer. When we’re finished with the project, it will provide an improved customer experience.”

First, giant modular buildings are prefabricated offsite in the “mod-yard,” a six-acre lot adjacent to the airport, allowing the team to work more efficiently by reducing the restrictions of airport security that are inherent when working airside. Due to the rhythmic, repetitive nature of concourses, modular construction is well suited for the programming. Areas like restrooms, utility rooms, back of house spaces and concessions were planned so they can be constructed within a single module. The building envelope, main elements of the building systems, interior framing and some finishes are completed before the move to allow for an accelerated connection of each segment when they reach their final location. Modules are transported more than a mile from the mod-yard across the airfield to the terminal by high-tech equipment and self-propelled modular transporters or SPMTs. Functioning as building blocks, the steel modules – ranging in size from 29 to 99 feet wide and 96 to 192 feet long and

Above: Frank Rucker, senior deputy general manager of Infrastructure, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Right, below: Heavy-lift transport company Mammoet moves modules from the construction zone to the Concourse D. Moves happen at nighttime, over the course of only a few hours.

45

AX NEWS JULY/AUGUST 2025