Gateway to the Future

By John Altdorfer
Photographs by Alejandro Balaguer/Getty Corporate Assignment

Lima’s Jorge Chavez International Airport is Peru’s busiest airport, annually serving 4.5 million passengers. But after 45 years, the facility had become outdated, and it was clear it would not be able to accommodate future increases in air traffic bringing businesspeople and tourists to the nation’s capital. What Peru needed was an airport with a modern terminal, new gates, shopping areas, and adequate parking—a world-class airport that could serve as a gateway to South America.

Realizing that Lima’s airport could continue to lose business to airports in other South American countries, the Peruvian government embarked on a four-year, $105 million modernization and expansion.

In 2001, Alterra Partners, an airport development venture of Bechtel Enterprises and Singapore Changi Airport Enterprise, teamed with Fraport AG (owner-operator of Frankfurt Airport in Germany) and Peru’s Cosapi SA to form Lima Airport Partners. The new consortium signed a 30-year concession to modernize and operate the airport, with design and construction to be handled by Bechtel.

“One of the major challenges was getting everyone to focus on the fact that this wasn’t a small airport anymore,” says Bechtel Project Manager Larry Estrada. He points out that over the next few years, Lima’s passenger volume is expected to more than double, and could reach 16 million by 2020.

The expansion includes constructing new concourses, expanding and adding new aircraft aprons, and building a state-of-the-art, duty-free retail center called Peru Plaza. Bechtel also will build seven new passenger boarding bridges.

“This airport is so old that people had to walk down ramps from their planes and then across the tarmac to get to the terminal,” explains Bechtel Contracts Manager Hector Estrada.

Measuring about 25,000 square meters before the project, the airport will more than double its size to 54,000 square meters. “When it’s all said and done, “there won’t be any doubts that this is a world-class airport,” says Hector Estrada.

After Lima Airport Partners took over operation of the airport in February 2001, the development team geared up for a 31-month project. Plans called for demolition of the airport’s domestic and international concourses, which the team recognized could disrupt daily operations.

“During the design stage we met with airport officials to explain what we would do to reduce the project’s impact on normal operations,” says Larry Estrada. “For example, we built temporary offices for airport officials and temporary passenger concourses. We also made plans to relocate aircraft during the demolition and construction phases.”

For passenger safety, crews built walkways to divert foot traffic around construction sites. As construction continues throughout the airport, workers are constantly rerouting pedestrian paths. “We designed a barricade system that separates the public from the working areas in the concourse and on the airfield,” says Safety Manager Al Mulcahy. “Anytime you’re working in an area like this, you need to keep nonconstruction personnel out of the work area.”

Passengers and airport employees can be easily moved away from the action, but providing a margin of safety for airplanes is another matter. “All our workers are carefully directed in the aprons and taxi areas,” says Larry Estrada. “We stay in contact with the control tower and notify pilots 60 days in advance so that they know which areas will be shut down and where we’ll be working. There’s a lot of communication between us and airport operations people.”

Bechtel’s attention to safety issues has paid off. By May 2004, the project had passed 1.5 million work-hours without any time lost to accidents. “And our safety people have done a fantastic job of changing the attitude of local workers toward safety,” says Bechtel Project Controls Manager Jim Young.

Although Bechtel enjoys a long history of mining and metals work in Peru—most recently at the Antamina copper mine high in the Andes—this is the first time the company is involved with an airport project in the country. Bechtel also is working on similar projects in Costa Rica and Curaçao.

At the Lima project, Bechtel is hiring local contractors to do all the electrical, mechanical, and architectural jobs—an approach that presents unique challenges. For instance, many local firms lack contacts and funds to purchase necessary equipment. That’s where Bechtel stepped in. “We decided that when appropriate, we would purchase and ship equipment to expedite the work and cut cost for the contractors,” says Procurement Manager Terry Millar. “We have the buying power to get better deals and service. That took a lot of the stress off subcontractors who can’t get the same arrangements.”

Helping former government employees at the airport adjust to a more intense, business-oriented environment required patience. “This is the first time a lot of people here have worked in a corporate culture,” says Larry Estrada. “We helped them understand that the way they dealt with decisions and customers could have a serious impact on the project.”

With construction crews working from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.—and longer when needed—the project is progressing faster than expected. “We’re completely on our target schedule, which is on a faster track than the client’s,” says Larry Estrada. “We did that by planning for success. We started with a great execution plan. And as issues came up along the way, we put them on the table and implemented resolutions immediately. Right now, we’re about two to three months ahead of the timetable.”

When the project is complete in 2005, Lima will have a modern, world-class airport serving as a magnet for tourism and business. That, in turn, should provide a welcome boost for Peru’s economy.

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