Capital Electric Construction Co. Inc., Kansas City, Kan., has operated in the area since 1957, providing a range of services in the commercial/industrial/institutional, residential and nonbuilding markets. When the city passed a measure to revitalize the Kansas City International Airport (KCI)—consolidating its three terminals to a single, modern structure—Capital Electric Construction brought its expertise in building information modeling (BIM), design/build and prefabrication to bear on KCI’s power and lighting systems, from the new terminal to the runways.

Three general contractors—Clark Construction, Bethesda, Md.; The Weitz Co., Des Moines, Iowa; and Clarkson Construction, Kansas City, Mo.—formed the Clark/Weitz/Clarkson (CWC) joint venture for the project, which called for an electrical contractor with Capital Electric Construction’s credentials. According to Ed Downey, president at Capital Electric, it all happened quickly.

“We submitted our proposal on March 21, 2018,” Downey said. “The Capital Electric team, consisting of our Henderson Engineers Inc. and Lightworks Inc. partners, interviewed on March 27, 2018, and was verbally awarded the project on April 4, 2018.”

Celebration had to be measured, however, because the team had a long road ahead to help construct what the Kansas City Aviation Department declared the largest infrastructure project in the city—the estimated total construction value was $1.5 billion, with electrical accounting for more than $100 million. The price tag benefited the local One Percent for Art program, which requires that 1% of public construction costs be set aside for public art. The KCI project had a budget of $5.65 million for newly commissioned public artworks, the largest in city history. 

According to Downey, a job of this scope called for a deliberate approach and leaders who understood that investing time up front saves time on the back end. Moreover, Capital Electric needed to ensure everything was constructed with a high level of workmanship, and the design had to be future-proofed to serve the region until KCI’s centennial and beyond.

Flight origin

The three-building KCI complex opened more than 50 years ago on Nov. 11, 1972. As air travel conventions and needs evolved, the original footprint proved restrictive. In 2013, a study by then-Mayor Sly James’ Airport Terminal Advisory Group, the Kansas City Aviation Department and airline partners found renovations wouldn’t cut it; a new single-terminal design was necessary.

Now a modernized gateway to the skies, KCI’s two-story, dual-concourse terminal structure spans more than 1 million square feet, housing arrivals and departures. Moving walkways connect the concourses, which accommodate 40 gates and lounge areas with wired and wireless device charging, plus nearly 50 shops and eateries, including permanent and rotating barbecue restaurants for which Kansas City is so well-known. Built to be future-proofed, the terminal can easily be expanded to up to 50 gates.

“Working with CWC, the architect and our electrical engineer, Henderson Engineers, the terminal is set up for additional gates to be added with minimal interruption,” Downey said.

Work pings on the radar scope

Within the terminal, Capital Electric Construction worked with partners Henderson Engineers and Lightworks on power and lighting, including the installation of sixteen 4,000A, 480/277V services; 208Y/120V distribution and branch circuits to support terminal operations; four emergency distribution systems; lighting and lighting controls; lightning protection systems; and mechanical equipment power connections.

Capital Electric also powered the modern, all-glass passenger boarding bridges and electrical ground support equipment.

“We provided charging stations at each gate for the airlines to connect their servicing equipment into,” said Troy Olson, senior project manager at Capital Electric Construction. “All of this equipment is operated off of a battery system.”

While Capital Electric provided power and lighting to the baggage handling main control panels, workers from IBEW Local No. 124 finished out the baggage handling, fire alarm, security and low-­voltage systems.

Outside, Capital Electric workers installed new roadway and surface parking lot lighting power systems and vehicle charging stations to support the new terminal and parking garage configuration. The electricians relocated Federal Aviation Administration and Kansas City Aviation Department communication duct banks, installed and reconfigured taxiway center/edge lighting and lighted navigation signage, and installed apron-high mast lighting and fence lighting. Also included in the scope of work were power and lighting services for the glycol storage equipment (GSE) tanks and GSE power rough-in.

“Glycol is used for plane de-icing,” Olson said. “The airport built a new location for the storage tanks, and it consisted of new electrical power and heat tracing on the plumbing lines at these locations.”

Preflight challenge checklist

According to Olson, the fact that it was a design-build job meant Capital Electric’s project team worked closely with the architects and engineers throughout the job. However, maintaining the design schedule alongside the construction schedule was challenging because a project of this size was always bound to encounter changes.

“Keeping up with both workflows and maintaining your manpower along with it was a juggling act,” Olson said.

Beyond design changes, Capital Electric teams had to coordinate with other trades and scopes of work across the entire airport. The contractor had multiple crews working simultaneously in various areas inside and outside.

“We had around four full-time BIM coordinators modeling all our work and installation with other trades for this project,” Olson said.

As far as logistics, the airport’s old B and C terminals continued operating throughout construction, which posed potential complications. However, according to Downey, the airport’s ongoing operation was counterintuitively helpful.

“CWC encircled the whole area with fencing and kept travelers out of the construction area,” Downey said. “Having that extra consideration for access meant pathways to work zones, staging areas and storage facilities were kept clear. It made our work more efficient because the team anticipated that potential complication.”

The project’s sheer size also presented some challenges. Capital Electric used a combination of prefabrication and smart design to confront the installation of approximately 231,000 feet of PVC pipe and 293,000 feet of electrical metallic tubing.

“We had to incorporate a majority of the conduit all together and installed it underground at once,” Olson said. “It was a huge task but a tremendous help in the end. If we’d had to install all of that conduit overhead, the schedule would probably have suffered, and we would have had to put a lot more electricians on the job for the labor portion.”

According to Downey, prefabricating conduit runs required growing Capital Electric’s prefabrication process, but this investment saved time in the long run.

“There were many days of working with CWC to adjust the schedule for all of the prefabricated underground so that we could save them a lot of schedule time after the building was built,” Downey said. “We had to invest in educating CWC in electrical prefabrication and the time it takes to go through the BIM process, perform clash detection and invest six to eight weeks before every installation to prefabricate enough components that the field crew is not stopping and starting.”

In addition to the hundreds of thousands of feet of PVC and EMT underground conduit, Capital Electric Construction prefabricated overhead lighting conduit and metal deck inserts for the lighting racks, in-wall rough-ins for receptacles (including metal-clad cable, boxes and receptacles), passenger boarding bridge wireways with disconnects installed, and wiring devices and poke-thru devices.

“We installed the poke-thrus in the concrete floor for plugging electronic devices in,” Olson said. “We had prefab install wire tails that were long in order to go through the concrete floor to the underside of the slab, and then we made up the wire terminations on the floor below.”

In the end, Downey said more than 10% of the total hours for the project were performed off-site in the prefabrication shop, and he said the approach brought two significant benefits to the job.

“The planning at the front end to design and plan the prefabricated items by the foremen, BIM department, project manager and prefabrication department corrected many errors that typically wouldn’t have been seen until construction,” Downey said.

Clear skies ahead

When Olson considers the new KCI terminal, he sees a revitalized airport that’s ready to serve the region’s travelers for decades to come as well as a soaring achievement for Capital Electric Construction.

“The entire team did an outstanding job from the project conception to completion,” Olson said. “This project succeeded only because everyone involved—upper management, design team, project management, preconstruction, estimating, field operations and labor, BIM, our partner contractors and office support—made it so. We simply couldn’t have pulled this off without everyone from every part of this company giving it their all.”

Due in part to Capital Electric Construction’s work, KCI earned LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

“As with anything, it’s all about the people,” Downey said. “Capital Electric Construction has a great group of individuals, many of whom stay for their entire career. This longevity helps us to be the best and safest electrical contractor in the region. We worked over 720,000 hours in 2023 with zero recordable incidents. That is a testament to the attention to safety our people give, and KCI stands now to show what makes this a great company.”

According to the Kansas City Aviation Department, the investment in the airport is already paying dividends. KCI served approximately 11.5 million travelers in 2023, a 17.7% increase from the previous year. 

“As a direct result of Capital Electric Construction rising to meet the challenges of KCI’s new terminal construction, we have continued to grow our BIM, prefabrication and field leadership,” Downey said. “As new challenges come to the market, we’ll be ready for them because we’ve grown from this experience.”

jeff roberts, JLR Photo / Jeff Beavers / Capital Electric Construction Co. Inc.