New Airport Terminal a Winner
John Wayne Airport’s new Thomas F. Riley Terminal, which garnered headlines last year because of missed construction deadlines and cost overruns, has received four design and engineering awards, county officials said.
The Institute for the Advancement of Engineering recently presented Airport Manager Jan Mittermeier with the 1991 Engineering Project Achievement Award for the airport’s expansion program. The airport was selected, Mittermeier said, for excellence in completing a project of great complexity and magnitude while keeping the airport fully operational during construction.
The Orange County Engineering Council, meanwhile, presented the airport staff with its Project Achievement Award for incorporating “materials from all over the world” and for coordinating efforts of “all types of engineering and construction specialists.”
Christine Edwards, John Wayne Airport’s operations chief, received the Manager of the Year Award from the Orange County chapter of the Society for Advancement of Management for “keeping the normal daily operations running smoothly while the entire airfield was undergoing massive construction.”
The fourth honor came from the California Transportation Foundation, which awarded a “Tranny” for Airport Project of the Year to the expansion program. The airport was nominated for the Tranny by Jack Kemmerly, chief of Caltrans’ Division of Aeronautics.
The $310-million airport expansion program, which includes the new $64-million passenger terminal, taxiways, parking garages and road improvements, is the county’s largest public works project.
The new terminal opened Sept. 16.
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