=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/n/a/2008/08/23/state/n000= 204D26.DTL --------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, August 23, 2008 (AP) Costs increase as Vegas airport walkway delayed By BRIAN ECKHOUSE, Las Vegas Sun (08-23) 00:02 PDT LAS VEGAS, CA (AP) -- A long-delayed skywalk connecting concourses at McCarran International Airport may no longer be a bridge to nowhere, but the public won't be able to use it until late November at the earliest. The pedestrian walkway was supposed to have been completed more than 10 months ago, along with a two-level security annex aimed at shortening checkpoint lines. The 12 new security lanes are scheduled to open next month. Passengers on Southwest Airlines, the busiest carrier at the nation's sixth-busiest airport, will make the most use of the new C gates security annex. But the benefits should be felt by passengers flying out of the D gates as well, because now they share a security checkpoint with C gates. Officials say that with the skybridge and security annex project costing millions more than its initial price tag, a battle between the contractor and the county seems likely. The initial construction estimate was $65.4 million, according to early 2006 county documents. The construction cost now is pegged at $72 million, with airport officia= ls saying that from the start they anticipated the cost might rise as much as 10 percent. Architectural costs went up too, due to what airport executives call "fairly significant" design flaws and a glacial construction process. Redesigns have pushed up architectural costs more than 72 percent, from $1.66 million to $2.86 million. The architect, Domingo Cambeiro, blames the contractor, Flagship Construction, for many of the delays and cost increases. One problem: The end of the bridge was 9 inches higher than its second-floor entrance to the existing B concourse, home to US Airways and some overflow Southwest Airlines flights. Also, the skyway roof "sloped in both directions, so it had to be redesigned," said Randall Walker, Clark County aviation director and airport chief executive. Walker said he was angered by the "languishing" pace of construction. "What distressed me," he said, "is that I walked (the construction area) at 3:30 p.m. on a weekday in July. And there was absolutely no one doing work out there." Walker said Flagship may add extra shifts to get the project finished. And he anticipates a legal fight over costs and delays when construction on the annex-bridge project wraps up. "We're significantly at odds," Walker said. The airport and the contractor seemed to squabble over a construction timeline from the beginning. Flagship initially had difficulty securing a bond, prompting a 120-day delay, Cambeiro said. The project should have begun Feb. 20, 2006. Walker said he rejected a company request to excuse the delay. A Flagship official, briefly apprised of Walker's overall remarks, offer= ed this single statement: "The entire facts are not being portrayed accurately." Walker acknowledged he isn't fond of the bridge concept. The airport's priority is to be a destination for Las Vegas travelers, n= ot a way station for passengers flying through without ever leaving the airport. But he said he determined the skywalk was necessary to ease mounting demand at McCarran. Officials at carriers including Southwest Airlines and US Airways encouraged the construction of the walkway bridge. Southwest handled 16 million passengers in 2007, or about one in three of McCarran's record 47.7 million. US Airways handled 9.4 million travelers, almost 20 percent more of the airport total. The airlines pay for buses to shuttle between the two concourses, but wi= ll discontinue that service once the bridge opens, Walker said. The idea of a bridge was conceived before the 9/11 attacks as a link between the B and C concourses, to and from the existing buildings, to prevent additional traffic in typically lengthy security lines. With a connection between concourses, passengers on layovers in one concourse wouldn't have to pass through security checkpoints. The proposal was revisited in spring 2004. But before the county hired a contractor, airport officials scrapped a $15 million plan for a bridge alone and expanded the scope of the work to address several other aspects of an airport bursting at the seams. In the end, the airport decided to build the bridge project with a 12-la= ne security annex. Later, with construction on the skyway and annex lagging, the airport instructed Flagship to make the annex the priority, Walker said. The annex is more critical today because the airport is opening an expanded D concourse next month. Without the 12 additional lanes, there would be a bigger crush at the existing C/D security gates. But because multiple projects were revised and consolidated, different architects were employed. Cambeiro attended to the bridge. "It does sound like we duplicated things," said Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani. Cambeiro and his project manager, Mark Dowell, attribute the flaws in Flagship's work on the bridge to old drawings of the existing B concourse that included errors and changes made during construction by project manager Bechtel. Communication problems further slowed the process, Cambeiro said, and the B concourse second floor elevation couldn't be identified, because his company was unable to survey it. "We couldn't expose the floor because the concourse was in operation," he said. The second floor of the two-story pedestrian bridge ultimately was sloped to accommodate the difference in elevations, Walker says. As for the roof, Dowell alleged that Flagship "did not install the edge = of the roof the way it was intended, so it created problems with the slope." A redesign was needed. Walker says he would welcome Cambeiro's company back to the airport. The architect has assisted on several projects at the airport over the years, building good will. And in Walker's view, anyone can make an error. "It's how you deal with them that's the issue," he said. ___ Information from: Las Vegas Sun, www.lasvegassun.com -------------------= --------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2008 AP <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". 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