PHX Sky Train™ Construction Update

SPEAKING IN CONCRETE TERMS: WE’RE MAKING PROGRESS

What could you do with 1.2 million wheelbarrows of concrete? For one thing, you could fill an entire football field one foot deep with it. It’s also the amount of concrete that will be used in the construction of PHX Sky Train™.

“I don’t know why someone would want to pour concrete into a football field, but it just goes to show you how much concrete we’re talking about,” said Jay DeWitt, Aviation Department special projects administrator overseeing the Sky Train project.

“Concrete work makes up the vast majority of the construction on the PHX Sky Train, with a total of approximately 100,000 cubic yards of it being used on the job,” added DeWitt. 

During this current phase, the majority of the work on this project has entailed clearing structures and utilities in a path through the Airport as well as building underground foundations, and, most recently, construction of the vertical columns that will hold the stations and guideway. The last of the Sky Train columns were constructed in July. 

“Most of the construction we've seen on Sky Train so far has involved cast-in-place concrete, where temporary forms are built, then concrete is pumped in to cure on-site,” DeWitt said. “When the temporary formwork is removed, it reveals the new concrete structure beneath.”

Coming soon, as part of the next phase of construction, more pre-cast concrete (that is cast and cured off-site) together with steel will be brought into the Airport on trucks and swung into place with cranes. “This will make for very quick construction that literally appears to happen overnight,” DeWitt explained. 

In late August, onlookers will begin seeing cranes placing large, pre-cast concrete horizontal bridge segments in between Terminal 4 and the East Economy Lot on top of existing columns.

Additionally, the formwork and steel falsework over the Taxiway R bridge are set for removal in September as scheduled to allow the reopening of the Taxiway in October.

“We are happy to see the steady progress of the construction of the PHX Sky Train project and thrilled that it is proceeding as scheduled,” DeWitt said.  

Construction of the first stage of Sky Train that will connect to the East Economy parking facilities and deliver riders to Terminal 4 is scheduled for completion during the first quarter of 2013. Terminal 4 serves about 80 percent of Sky Harbor’s passengers.

When Stage One is complete, it also will connection 44th Street and Washington to an Airport ground transportation center and to the METRO Light Rail station.

More PHX Sky Train information