Airport Schedule Redrafted, Officials Say

County officials said Tuesday that they have drafted a new set of target completion dates for the John Wayne Airport terminal project, laying out a tight schedule for the remaining work that the Board of Supervisors will review weekly.

The new schedule sets more than three dozen milestone dates between now and the project’s completion in early August, officials familiar with the document said. Taylor Woodrow Construction California Ltd., the terminal contractor, will be expected to meet each of those milestones or face being fired from the $60-million project.

Taylor Woodrow had also held a $25-million contract to build a parking garage and elevated road until last week, when the supervisors unanimously voted to strip them of the project. The company has since filed suit to contest the firing, however.

“If they don’t finish these things as we go along, then they’re subject to action by the board,” said John McCarney, project director for HPV, the private consortium that is being paid $23 million by the county to oversee the airport’s construction.

Taylor Woodrow officials have said in recent weeks that they hope to complete work on the terminal by Aug. 23 in order to clear out in time for the new airport to open on Sept. 16. The contractor has agreed to an accelerated schedule, however, and county officials said Monday that they are now hoping to have the terminal construction completed by the first week of August.

After the terminal construction is complete, county officials are hoping to give the airlines and terminal concessionaires time to move into their spaces so that the transition from the old terminal can be handled in a single night, without closing the airport.

Taylor Woodrow officials have previously said they are eager to comply with the accelerated schedule. On Tuesday, Judy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the company, reiterated that “we believe we’ll be having a very successful opening,” and said that the company is currently involved in “very productive negotiations with the construction manager.”