Journey With AUS Project Spotlight: West Gate Expansion

Over the past year, you may have noticed construction walls going up across Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS). Behind those walls – and all over our campus – AUS staff and our project partners are hard at work improving your travel experience through our Journey With AUS airport expansion program.

A key near-term project of our Journey With AUS program, The West Gate Expansion will add 84,500 square feet and bring new amenities to the Barbara Jordan Terminal. We connected with Matt McCoy, Airport Expansion and Development (AEDP) Construction Manager and Robert Mercado, AUS Program Manager for an inside scoop into what it takes to deliver a large project like the West Gate Expansion.

Artist’s conceptual rendering – West Gate Expansion exterior

Can you tell us a little about your career backgrounds, and what brought you to AUS?

Matt has been addicted to the world of aviation since completing his first aviation project in 2002. He’s worked on terminal projects all over the country since 2005, starting in Augusta, Georgia, and then Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Orlando, Charleston, and New Orleans before landing at AUS. “It's been an exciting ride,” Matt shared. “Everyone is different. It's neat, working with architects and contractors to bring the concept that’s on paper to life.” Matt loves the problem-solving required to move projects like the West Gate Expansion forward.

Robert graduated from the University of Texas School of Architecture in 1983. For the past 30 years, he has managed large projects that serve the public, moving from the private sector to the University of Texas System before coming to AUS. Robert’s work on the West Gate Expansion started with its inception, and it’s just one of many projects he has managed during his 13 years at AUS.  “This is what I love to do,” says Robert. “I love the aviation industry.”

Left: Matt McCoy, AEDP Construction Manager; Right: Robert Mercado, AUS Program Manager

What is the West Gate Expansion project, and how does it benefit AUS?

The West Gate Expansion was envisioned as an enabling project for the Journey With AUS expansion program. “Enabling means that it's a project that has to be done so you can do something else,” Robert explains. In the simplest of terms, “It enables you to do another project.”

Concourse B, another project within the program, is a new, 20 gate midfield concourse to meet the airport’s long-term passenger demand. This new concourse will connect to the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal via tunnel, but would require removal of three gates. Enter the West Gate Expansion: a project to add three new gates to offset the ones we’d lose, along with more space for amenities across three levels of the west side of the Barbara Jordan Terminal, including: 

• Hold room space for 5 gates
• Dining areas for new concessionaires
• Additional restrooms
• Playscape
• Meditation/quiet room
• Family and nursing rooms
• Pet relief room
• New mezzanine with a public outdoor balcony and indoor seated viewing area

Robert and Matt shared that the new viewing area is in a prime location, with a view to downtown and the west runway. And the team is hard at work incorporating art into the new playscape, with Robert closely coordinating with the artist.

Artist’s conceptual rendering – West Gate Expansion mezzanine

What needs to happen before a project enters construction?

Projects start their lifecycle in the “envision” planning phase, which is developed by AUS planners in alignment with the Airport Master Plan. This phase involves thorough assessment and strategizing to ensure projects meet long-term goals and airport requirements and this process is long. For instance, The West Gate project was conceptualized years ago as a critical step to facilitate future expansion projects like the Concourse B and tunnel.

As the West Gate project moved into the procurement phase, AUS selected a design firm and a Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) to manage construction. The CMAR process brings the construction firm onboard early, so they can be in lock step with the AUS team and design firm every step of the way. It also helps the team price the work as it’s designed, supporting constructability and helping to pick building methods and materials within budget. From there, Robert says, “we have a scope and a budget and we work towards it to design a project that satisfies all the needs. A few of the wants, but all the needs.”

Then the CMAR – in this case, Hensel Phelps – issues a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP). Projects like West Gate typically have multiple GMPs to cover different parts of the work, like enabling work, moving gates, constructing the expansion building, and finishing it out.

After that, the project enters its design phase, which Robert says generally takes at least a year and requires “a lot of engagement with everybody in the process,” including AUS executives and individual teams across AUS. “We engage with all the departments that would be affected by new construction and what the final product is going to be,” he says, “and then we get it all into the drawings and we build it.”

For West Gate, and the Journey With AUS program overall, one of the biggest challenges is keeping everything operational during major construction. While the West Gate Expansion is an enabling project, it also required enabling work of its own to be constructed. The team needed to clear a footprint for the project by adjusting AUS aircraft safety envelopes from Gate 22 down to Gate 32. The safety envelopes are a red-and-white striped outline of the aircraft on the ramp, intended to show staff where they can safely stand to avoid the aircraft while it's taxiing in. Every aircraft that pulls into that gate pulls into that envelope. Then, to make space for construction, the team built out passenger boarding bridges (a.k.a. stinger gates), which are long, temporary, elevated walkways that connect gates to aircrafts.

Gate 34 Passenger Boarding Bridge / stinger gate, September 2023

Which departments at AUS do you coordinate with?

According to Matt, “I think the quicker answer would be who don't we work with!” The West Gate team connected with all groups directly affected by the project, from Airside Operations to Terminal Operations to Security, Commercial Management, airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and more. The team also coordinated with other groups across AUS – from Maintenance to Facility Services to Information Systems – to get input from all parties who would work in, support, and maintain the project. Additionally, they engaged groups like Guest Services and AUS’s architects to ensure the project’s layout was clean, easily navigable, and passenger friendly.

But Matt also says that this coordination is one reason he is addicted to aviation – the breadth of people he gets to work with every day. Even when things don’t go perfectly, he says, you get to work with different groups and “you try to make things as right as possible, as quickly as possible.”

How does building the West Gate Expansion within a fully operational airport affect the construction process?

Matt says, “for the majority of the time, you’re working around passengers” – work isn’t fully isolated from the traveling public. The team does some work at night, such as in hold rooms or within the concourse, but most aspects of the West Gate project can be built during the day with minimal passenger changes due to the project’s location on the far west end of AUS. Looking back on his first big project at AUS – the original East Infill project – Robert says, “my boss described it as open heart surgery on the building because we were right in the middle, affecting everything around us – all departments, all systems and, well, we had to maintain all that.”

Sometimes, passenger seating near the West Gate Expansion construction area can get a bit crowded, but the West Gate team proactively works to minimize those challenges along the way, through strategies like removing the Ivini concession area to create more space for passengers.

Robert shared that the team appreciates our passengers’ patience during the construction process. “People understand construction,” he says. “They know it’s the means of something better. It's not fun, but it's still progress. And there'll be something better in the future.”

What are some milestones that the West Gate project has already hit, and which ones are still ahead?

According to Matt, construction of the stinger gates was the West Gate Expansion’s first big milestone. “From a customer service standpoint, they're long, but they're also air conditioned, which is a big plus.”

And the most recent big milestone was erection of the first steel beam in July 2024. “That was another huge milestone,” says Matt. “People will see things happening. You're going to drive by that building every day and it's going to look a little bit different.”

West Gate Expansion beam signing event, July 2024

Robert cited topping out of the steel as an upcoming major milestone – a phase celebrated once the building has “peaked out” on all steel at its full height. “Traditionally, you put a tree up there to signify it,” he shared. “I'm not sure where that originally came from.”

Future milestones will include applying the skin of the building and reaching substantial completion, which is expected in spring 2026.

How are project timelines set? And what challenges can impact a project’s construction timeline?

From planning to construction, all project timelines are built to include several detailed processes like design, submittal, time to identify construction materials, time to validate design specifications, and more. These schedules are also developed with an ending in mind: the AUS team provides the contractor with an ideal project completion estimate, and the contractor provides a schedule and cost estimate based on what it takes to complete the work in that time. This leads to negotiation between both parties, to balance timeline needs and budget needs.

Matt says that getting a feel for a project’s flow – and its challenges – is critical to moving things forward. This helps the team clear a path for the contractor to overcome obstacles and hit contractually obligated deadlines. Factors like weather, technical system compatibility, staffing, and coordination between teams must be accounted for in the planning process. The West Gate team strategizes to meet these challenges, whether they’re planning around wet spring weather, or shifting schedules to keep workers out of the worst of the grueling summer heat.

Supply delivery times can also impact a project’s timeline. Matt says, “right now we're seeing delivery times for electrical equipment that are longer than I've ever experienced in my career.” Delivery timelines of 18 months have become more common for items like steel, electrical equipment, and mechanical equipment. Robert points out that West Gate’s systems “are custom-made for the project, custom sized. They take a long time and they're not made in Austin.”

At the end of the day, challenges like these are just part of the process for seasoned staff like Robert and Matt. “You end up with a product that's going to last much longer than I'm going to last,” Robert jokes, “And once it's done, it's going to be a nice project.”

Are there any behind-the-scenes project features the team would like to highlight?

A lot of aspects of the West Gate project are easy to spot for AUS travelers, like construction walls or newly erected steel beams. But did you know that the West Gate team has been hard at work to extend trench drains as part of this project? Trench drains remove water and keep runways and taxiways safe for aircraft and vehicles on the airfield. “A trench drain doesn’t seem like a big deal,” says Robert, “but airplanes drive over them and they have to be they built right.” According to Matt, trench drain construction brought the team within a foot and a half of the wing tip of larger aircraft taxiing near the area – “so, that takes some really careful coordination with airside operations!” North side trench drains have been extended and a similar process for the south side will be coming later in the project.

West Gate Expansion trench drain construction, March 2024

Thanks to Matt and Robert for connecting with us about this pivotal project! Learn more about our Journey With AUS here.