Hill International leading $2B Phoenix aviation capital program

The City of Phoenix City Council this week approved Hill International Inc. as program manager for its $2 billion, five-year aviation capital improvement program (CIP). The Philadelphia-based company will receive a maximum fee of $50 million for its services, according to city council documents, and will function as an owner's representative for the design and construction of the city aviation department's airport projects at Sky Harbor International Airport and Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, as well as Goodyear Airport in Goodyear, Arizona. The types of work Hill will oversee, according to the company, include airfield improvements, as well as terminal and parking expansions. One of the major aviation projects listed in the city's preliminary 2023-2028 CIP is the design and construction of a second Terminal 3 North Concourse at Sky Harbor. Earlier this year, the city council selected HOK to provide architectural services for the new $358 million concourse. The project, according to a December 2022 presentation, will include a 140,000-square-foot concourse with six gates. One level of the concourse will feature lounges and amenities for passengers, and the apron level will host airline, airport, concessionaire and vendor services. The 260,000-square-foot apron portion of the project will be able to accommodate multiple aircraft and include features such as a fuel distribution system, passenger boarding bridges, ground service equipment staging areas, electric charging infrastructure and vehicle service roads. The project will also feature a passenger connector with moving walkways from the existing North concourse to the new concourse, as well as passenger bus lounges and vertical transportation at Terminals 3 and 4. In addition to line items for the new concourse and other projects, the CIP identifies more than $823 million in contingency funds for potential future airport development projects. The city council issued other aviation contracts this week as well, including a combined $39 million to J. Banicki Construction Inc. (Phoenix) for various construction-manager-at-risk and design-bid-build projects at Deer Valley, Goodyear and Sky Harbor. The council also issued Chasse Building Team Inc., based in Tempe, Arizona, a $9 million addition to its existing design-build contract for Terminal 4 fire alarm replacement at Sky Harbor.