January/February 2023 - 32

CONSULTANTS CORNER
AUTHOR Joe Petrie
Built for Success
Swinerton's National Aviation Lead Carrie Shaeffer
highlights how the industry is lining itself up for success
by embracing the needs of today and tomorrow.
AS SWINERTON'S National Aviation Lead, Carrie
Shaeffer is one of the leaders in modernizing North
America's aviation infrastructure. The company is
involved with more than $400 million in airport
improvement projects and modernization programs
annually at airports of all sizes.
Shaeffer sat for an interview with
Airport Business to share some of the
latest trends in the market and how
she sees airports tackling some of
their biggest needs while wading
through the outside challenges
impacting completion of improvement
programs.
Airport Business: What are the essential
elements of a major modernization
project for a commercial airport outside
of the passenger experience?
Carrie Shaeffer: Baggage handling
system modernization is an issue in
many of our airports today. We're
seeing all our clients working to
increase their capacity and their
efficiency in provisioning flights,
which requires facilities and utilities.
They want to turn their planes
quickly. They want people to have
on time flight departures and arrivals
and they want to have their snacks
while they're on the plane as well.
Swinerton is providing cross laminated
timber and mass timber component
of large prefab cassettes as part of
Portland's TCORE project.
IMAGES BY SWINERTON
AB: What is the major trend you're seeing
for airports updating their baggage handling
systems?
CS: What we see airports doing is
attempting to install as much new
flow as they can. They can't just gut
everything and start over.
For example, they're taking sections
such as the check baggage inspection
stations for TSA, looking for a place
in their airport to install a new CIBS,
which are faster, more ergonomically
designed for the TSA agents and
have better technology for scanning
the bags. Everything is improved in
that flow. We just finished one last
year at Palm Springs Airport.
AB: What is an area of airport improvement
that needs to be addressed more widely?
CS: Something I learned early in my
aviation construction career is that
it's all about the bathrooms. A smart
person once told me it's the last thing
you do before you get on a plane and
is the first thing you do when you get
off a plane. It's the whole impression of
an airport. Pre-pandemic, there were
lots of airports looking to increase and
really modernize restrooms. They
were trying to go touchless with
everything and put modern systems
inside the restrooms. That fell by the
wayside when some bigger, more
critical issues needed to be addressed
as we started coming back from
the pandemic. But we're near 2019
passenger enplanements, so look for
bathroom refreshes to start again soon.
AB: Airport improvement projects often
get looked at as solving one or two issues
at an airport. How can we address these
updates in a more holistic way regarding
all operations within the airport campus?
CS: From the builder's point of view
is it's not just the project, it's how
32 \ AIRPORT BUSINESS
January/February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2023
