Seattle-Tacoma International Airport

"Sea-Tac is one of the fastest growing airports in the nation and we must keep making these critical investments in our infrastructure to accommodate our growing economy."
— Senator Maria Cantwell

The Project

The Sea-Tac Airport’s terminal is a 450,000 square foot addition to the current Concourse A within the main terminal building. Sea-Tac, known as the fastest growing airport according to the Seattle Times, grew close to 13% in passenger traffic in 2015. The new construction will increase their capacity by nearly 50%. Currently the terminal is designed to service 1,200 an hour, and with the new terminal peak capacity will be 2,600 per hour.

The Problem

As common on the west coast, the EOR mandated connections of the SeaTac terminal expansion design. Which means the fabricator would have to follow these exactly. With Qnect not only would the connection efficiencies improve but there would be a big impact to the schedule.

• EOR waved mandated connection to allow QNECT to complete gravity connections
• By using Qnect, the fabricator improved scheduling and saved money on the job

The Solution

Initially the Engineer of Record (EOR) delivered “mandated” connections. Canron, a small steel fabricator located in western US and Canada, urged the EOR to use Qnect. Canron’s prior experience with Qnect created reliable value to their business. The EOR agreed and delivered reactions which were used by Qnect to engineer and optimize the joints at extraordinary speed. Qnect engineered the connections of the Sea-Tac model in one hour, which had a very positive impact on the schedule and optimized substantial savings.

The fabricator pushed back to have the connections delegated, but not mandated. Which meant that QuickQnect could connection engineer many of the steel structure connections.

Take Away

Creating a common understanding to bring economy and speed to the project.