LOS ANGELES, Nov. 15, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners today awarded a $271,519,000 design-build contract to Clark/McCarthy Joint Venture of Costa Mesa, Calif., to construct a replacement Central Utility Plant (CUP) at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). This project will replace the existing 49-year-old CUP that provides heating and cooling of passenger terminals, administrative offices, the iconic Theme Building, and other buildings within the LAX Central Terminal Area with a more efficient and sustainable facility. The new facility also will provide heating and cooling of new areas created by the $1.54-billion Bradley West Project currently under construction.
Clark/McCarthy was awarded a five-year, design-build contract that calls for demolishing the existing CUP and constructing on-site thermal-energy storage and ancillary facilities. New equipment will be installed in the replacement CUP, including: state-of-the-art central digital control and fire alarm systems; electric-driven centrifugal chillers; steam-driven chillers; gas-turbine-driven generators with heat-recovery steam generators (co-generation); and associated equipment such as primary and secondary chilled water pumps, cooling towers, underground thermal-energy storage tank and system, new maintenance shop and offices, electrical systems and switchgear.
"We are essentially conducting open-heart surgery on LAX in order to meet heating and cooling demands as we modernize the airport," said Roger Johnson, deputy executive director for Airport Development at Los Angeles World Airports. "The new state-of-the-art Central Utility Plant will make our terminals more comfortable for travelers, while saving energy and safeguarding the environment."
The existing CUP includes a network of approximately 18 miles of pipe that serve the entire Central Terminal Area. The Clark/McCarthy contract includes replacing the thermal utility distribution piping (heating and cooling water supply and return piping), electrical and communications duct banks, fire suppression water, and potable water piping, as well as renovating existing pump rooms in each terminal.
The new Central Utility Plant will be located east of the existing one, which is west of the LAX Theme Building.
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the seventh busiest airport in the world, offering more than 565 daily flights to 81 destinations in the U.S. and over 1,000 weekly nonstop flights to 65 international destinations on over 75 carriers. LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a department of the City of Los Angeles.
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