Press Release

November 06, 2002

Airports Authority Board Approves Contract for Train System at Dulles Airport

 Airports Authority Board Approves Contract for Train
System at Dulles Airport

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Board of Directors today approved the award of a nearly $200 million contract to Sumitomo Corporation of America to provide an underground, rubber-tired Automated People Mover (APM) train system that will connect the Main Terminal at Washington Dulles International Airport with Concourses A, B and C.

Airport users will have a convenient and comfortable train system that will handle more riders and move more efficiently than the current Mobile Lounges. The APM system will replace most of the current Mobile Lounges that transport passengers between the Main Terminal and midfield concourses and will reduce vehicular traffic on the airfield. The station locations in the concourses will also reduce walking distances.
This first phase of the APM project will construct a connection from the Main Terminal to Concourses A, B and C and construct the eastern train alignment of what will eventually be a loop system at full build out. The stations will be located at convenient points along the concourses to minimize walking distances to the airline gates.

Each station will support a center platform for boarding the train and two side platforms for exiting the train. Escalators, elevators and stairs constructed as part of the facility will provide the connection between the concourse level and the stations. The Main Terminal station will be reached through two new security screening areas. Once beyond security, passengers can continue to the T-Gate concourse, the pedestrian moving walkway to Concourses A or B or board the train system

The APM System will have over 2 miles of dual-lane guideway. Passengers will board the train at four stations-- one station at the Main Terminal, two stations at Concourse A/B, and one station at Concourse C. There will also be an at-grade Maintenance & Storage Facility at the south end of the Airport.

All public areas of the system will be fully accessible to the mobility impaired and disabled. The trains will be fully automated, without the need of drivers and will be operated from the APM Central Control Facility. The train will operate twenty-four hours a day, with the busiest time expected to be from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.

It is expected that in this first phase, the system will provide capacity for six thousand five hundred fifty (6,550) passengers per hour per direction. The airport train system is schedule to begin service by late 2008.

Sumitomo Corporation of America (SCOA) will be the prime contractor for the project. SCOA, with its headquarters in New York, NY, has experience with Automated People Mover (APM) systems in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and it is currently developing the new APM system for the Miami International Airport's North Terminal. Sumitomo has 30 years of APM experience with 7 Automated People Mover systems installed. As a prime contractor, the company has developed, managed and delivered transit systems for Chicago's METRA, the Northern Illinois Commuter Transportation District, the Maryland Mass Transit Administration, California's CALTRANS Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board, the Los Angeles County MTA, and the New York City Transit Authority.

The project team with SCOA as the prime contractor includes; Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD. as the system integrator and vehicle manufacturer; Alcatel Transport Automation Solutions as the automatic train control supplier; and L.K. Comstock and Company Inc. as subsystem designers and site construction manager. Other subcontractors to Sumitomo include; Eastern Electrical, a Virginia based company which will provide electrical/communication installation; Prince Construction Co., Inc., a Washington DC based company, which will provide and install rebar and concrete; and VARCO/MAC, a Maryland based company, which will provide the power delivery for the system. Many other Local Disadvantaged and Minority-Owned Businesses in the region will also participate in the construction of the APM system.

In addition, a $184 million contract has been awarded to Turner Construction for the construction of the APM Station in the Main Terminal.