JFK Airport Officials Solicit Master-plan Proposals for $10B Overhaul

The winning firm will provide preliminary engineering and design work for the massive overhaul. The master plan will include connecting existing terminals, redesigning airport roads to ease congestion, expanding the AirTrain rail system and centralizing airport parking.

The Port Authority is accepting proposals only from companies that have completed a $5 million-plus master plan — in the last 10 years — for a major airport that sees at least 15 million passengers a year.  

Cuomo announced the JFK renovation plans back in January, but the project is part of the $100 billion infrastructure plan he unveiled in early 2016.   

Officials said the lion's share of the cost for the JFK project ($8 billion) would go toward terminal work, with the rest allocated for infrastructure in and around the airport. While neither Cuomo nor the Port Authority have announced how the project will be delivered once the master plan is complete, he and AECOM Tishman exec Dan Tishman suggested that at least a portion of the work could be carried out under a public-private partnership.

The $4 billion LaGuardia Airport terminal replacement is also being delivered as a P3. LaGuardia Gateway Partners, a private consortium that includes Skanska USA, financed and designed the project, and it is now at work constructing it. The project is supposed to be complete in 2022, after which point Gateway Partners will operate and maintain the terminal for 35 years.  

Plans for LaGuardia's AirTrain rail system came under fire earlier this year when the Port Authority board attempted to agree on a capital plan; one board member called it one of "the most ill-conceived projects" he'd seen. Despite assertions of low potential ridership, Cuomo was able to secure $1.5 billion in Port Authority capital funds for the 1.5-mile elevated railway and people-mover system. - Kim Slowey - constructiondive.com