Turner wraps the $745 million first phase of Dulles Concourse E as a $20 billion program ramps up

It is the first project in the region with Multiple Aircraft Ramp System gates; any one of them can take one wide-body jet or two narrow-bodies, according to ENR. The phase also has 44,000-plus sq ft of shops and restaurants and a United Club of 40,000 sq ft. United is the main tenant. In September the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority told its board the opening had slipped from late September into October, FFXnow reported; ENR wrote this week that the concourse had not yet handled a commercial flight.

The hardest part was below grade. The concourse is built over the operating AeroTrain station, three stories below the apron. Turner drilled more than 140 caissons, 30 to 60 inches in diameter and up to 60 feet deep, into shale, and set the new columns directly on the station's columns so loads go straight to bedrock, construction executive Derek Brown told ENR. Crews scanned the station roof for post-tensioned tendons before cutting openings, extended a 20-by-30-foot utility tunnel 370 feet, and erected 5,200 tons of steel and unitized curtain wall covering 95,000 sq ft. Brown said prefabricated mechanical and electrical assemblies cut the head count on a site competing with data centers for workers.

Next, HOK is designing a two-phase, 1.1 million-sq-ft expansion and a new central utility plant. Turner won the construction manager at-risk contract for Phase 2 earlier this year, and MWAA hopes to start that work in 2027; design should reach 60% in January, agency project manager Chris Beausoleil said. Enabling work includes relocating cargo staging lots and deicing glycol facilities and building an overnight hardstand. Phases 2 and 3 are due in service by 2031, after which MWAA can start retiring Concourse C/D, a temporary building from the mid-1980s. The wider program, set to run 15 years, also extends the AeroTrain and adds a fifth runway.