March 4, 2022

Sea-Tac Airport unveils $986M International Arrivals Facility

Photo from Port of Seattle [enlarge]

Five painted sculptures by Marela Zacarias above the baggage carousels were inspired by the colors of the waterways and sunsets in the San Juan Islands.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Thursday unveiled its $986 million International Arrivals Facility.

The IAF replaces a 50-year-old Customs facility and increases the airport's number of international capable gates from 12 to 20. This will more than double capacity to 2,600 passengers per hour (up from 1,200 today) when the first passengers arrive this spring.

The IAF is on the east side of Concourse A. It will receive passengers from the airport's South Satellite through a new 85-foot-high elevated walkway stretching over a taxilane. The IAF has a 450,000-square-foot grand hall outfitted with seven baggage carousels, which is three more than the old system had. Two-thirds of the building has daylighting to connect travelers to the outdoors and reduce energy consumption. Other amenities include nursing rooms, pet relief areas and restrooms for humans.

The port says the IAF will dramatically improve the travel experience, with a 15-minute reduction in minimum passenger connection time and faster passport checks.

The IAF is undergoing final readiness testing by the airport and its consultants over the next few weeks.

Clark Construction Group built the IAF under a progressive design-build contract. The design-build group included architecture firms Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and The Miller Hull Partnership. Engineers were PAE (mechanical and plumbing), Arup (electrical), KPFF Consulting Engineers (structural) and Magnusson Klemencic Associates (civil).

(Editor's note: PAE's role in the project has been added.)

For the pedestrian bridge, KPFF was the structural engineer and Schlaich Bergermann Partner assisted with the schematic design.

Clark was picked in 2015 to build the IAF, which has since gone through several scope changes and updates. The guaranteed maximum price with Clark is now $968 million. The port says it incurred about $18 million in additional staffing costs as a result of the pandemic, bumping the overall price to $986 million.

The port broke ground on the IAF in August 2017.