The New Indianapolis Airport
Indianapolis, IN
Type of Work: Heating and Air Conditioning, Process Piping
Architect/Engineer:
Aero Design Group
Indianapolis, IN
Contract Amount: $11.5 million
Big things are happening in Indianapolis, where the Colts brought home a Super Bowl championship for the 2006 season. Fans and players will soon have a new retractable dome stadium in which to enjoy future games (indoors or out, for the first time). But football and the “Indy 500” aren’t the only things leading people to this growing Midwest metropolis: visitors will get to Indy in greater numbers and in grander style when the city’s new airport opens in late 2008.
While it’s in view of the old terminal, the new Indianapolis Airport - with a modern terminal, parking for 7,000 vehicles, and direct access to adjacent Interstate 70 - is no remodeling project. The 1.2 million-square-foot terminal, with 500 feet of frontage on two levels for arrivals and departures, has nearly twice the space as the old one. Two new concourses each stretch ¼-mile and provide 40 gates that will accommodate commercial aircraft of every size. The indoor Civic Plaza, the terminal’s centerpiece, is underneath a 200-foot glass dome. Its natural light and landscaped interior create a park-like setting with concessions where visitors can relax before checking in or meeting travelers.
The new terminal will not only have the most modern requirements and technology for indoor comfort, security, parking, baggage handling and communications; its location between two runways will reduce dramatically the amount of fuel and time airplanes spend on taxiways.
The airport’s central utility plant furnishes chilled and hot water for the new terminal. The recently upgraded plant has 9,100 tons of chilling capacity and 231,000 lbs/hour of steam generation. On their 5,800-foot trip through the underground utility tunnel that connects the plant and terminal, the mains pass under one runway and two taxiways. The principal mechanical room’s pumps relay chilled and hot water to 39 air handlers servicing the terminal’s five levels and two concourses. Everything is joined by miles of pipe.
International Piping Systems, Inc. was the lead mechanical contractor for all above-ground pipe. On this project, however, its handiwork is hidden not only behind walls and ceilings. The Civic Plaza skydome stands 60 feet above the Terrazzo-coated floor, which covers miles more of small diameter pipe assembled in tight, triangular shapes. IPS installed the multi-zoned piping “cones” that lay side by side underneath the round slab, circulating chilled or hot water for the Plaza’s radiant cooling and heating system. The radiant system had to be built, tested and calibrated perfectly before it was sealed permanently underneath the concrete floor.
The new world-class Indianapolis Airport has the third tallest control tower in the U.S. Begun in 2005 and budgeted at $1.1 billion, it is the largest, most carefully planned development initiative in the city’s history. To build it, city planners needed a team of top-notch architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors with proven ability. For installation of the airport’s heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems, they chose International Piping Systems, Inc.
You can read the JobScope feature story about The New Indianapolis Airport project by clicking here (PDF/670K). 
