Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG/LFPG), France

Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport in Roissy, north of Paris, is undergoing expansion, while recovering from the tragic events of May 2004 when the roof of Terminal 2E – the most recent expansion project at the time which opened in June 2003 – collapsed, killing four people and injuring many others.

The airport is still one of the largest in the world and one of the major hubs in Europe, but suffers from a problem of over complexity and poor ground transportation. It is in danger of losing out to Schipol (The Netherlands) or Frankfurt (Germany) as the main hub in Europe for passengers and cargo.

The airport is still very conveniently situated in Europe, being only 45 minutes from Paris by Regional Rail (RER) and from there to the rest of Europe using the excellent French TGV high-speed rail system. CDG airport is also well placed for the A1 road, a main link to Paris, Lille and Belgium.

Air France believes that the future of European aviation lies at Charles de Gaulle airport where there is ample room to expand. Frankfurt and Schipol are very popular hubs in Europe but have very limited space for expansion. They are both at full capacity. Growth is hindered everywhere because terminals are too small or there are too few of them. Furthermore, runways are too short or are situated too close together; Heathrow (UK), Frankfurt and Schipol all have this problem.

In 2005 the airport saw passengers rise 5.5% and movements stay almost flat. Passengers totalled 51 million and movements 516,457. Cargo tonnes increased 9.4% to 1,637,610, ranking CDG as the second-largest cargo airport in Europe.

TERMINAL ONE

Terminal One is a complex circular building with seven satellites designed to allow as many planes as possible to park around them (but not designed for easy future expansion). The satellites are designed with multiple levels of waiting rooms, baggage handling and retail areas.

The terminal was originally designed to handle seven to eight million passengers a year. According to Aéroports de Paris (ADP), it handled 9.3 million passengers in 2003, which corresponds to just under 20% of Charles de Gaulle's entire traffic.

Since April 2004, Terminal One has been undergoing a €220m renovation project. This project was divided into four main steps, each dedicated to a quarter of the building.

In 2006, the newly renovated terminal still features the same organisation in terms of level, with the exception of the shopping and transfer levels. The former will accommodate the end station of the upcoming VAL (automated airport transit system, which opened in mid-2005).

The newly renovated area is now provisioned with check-in counters on half of its floor area. The latter area still accommodates shops and restaurants and the transfer level has also been fitted out with shops. This move allows the shops to enjoy better visibility from both departing and arriving passengers (better for business).

Star Alliance and ADP signed an agreement in principle in 2005 to create a partnership to support the alliance's effort to build a minihub at Terminal One.

VAL AUTOMATIC TRAIN SYSTEM

Siemens Transportation Systems and Keolis were selected in December 2001 by ADP for the construction, operation and maintenance of the automatic train system designed to handle ground services at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

The Automatic Transport System (ATS), known as VAL, now handles ground services at all of the Charles de Gaulle airport terminals. The system is driverless and can also handle inter-terminal transfers. Three VAL lines link the parking lots, Terminals One and Two and the future air terminals.

The passenger service of the VAL at CDG was opened in mid-2005. The system has been developing since opening and will reach final completion in late 2006.

TERMINAL TWO

Terminal Two was designed and constructed on a linear basis. The terminal consists of a central road or corridor off which all the terminal sections are borne. This design was made with an eye to the future as it allows ample opportunity for expansion. There were initially four sub-terminals – 2A and 2B were opened in 1982, 2C in 1989 and 2D in 1993.

The second and more modern architectural phase of Terminal Two encompasses sections 2F and 2E, where the blunt concrete structure of the older parts have disappeared from the outside view to give way to rounded metallic and glass vaults. These satellites can accommodate three wide-body jets through six jetways.

Terminal Two handled 34.7 million passengers in 2003. Further extension of Terminal 2E is in progress and should be open to the public by late 2006. In the meantime, the already existing part is being modified and rebuilt following a partial collapse of the boarding area roof, in May 2004.

TERMINAL THREE

Terminal Three was inaugurated in the first quarter of 1990, and is dedicated to charter flight operations to and from the airport. In contrast to the other two terminals this one is characterised by its simplicity of design. It is not architecturally significant and looks like a white hangar from the outside. It was designed for charter airlines who wish to pay fewer airport fees.

This terminal can be classified as a 'plane-less' one in the sense that passengers are brought by buses to their plane. Although there is some disruption in the boarding and de-boarding processes, this approach poses less of a problem as charter airlines are less prone to time schedule constraints than regular carriers.

Terminal Three has been a major success story. It was extended and renovated in the first quarter of 1999.

In 2003, it handled 4.2 million passengers – 8.7% of the total traffic at CDG. This is approximately 50% of Terminal One's traffic but Terminal Three takes up less than 50% of the space required by the larger terminal. Over 150 airlines use this building.

TERMINAL COLLAPSE AND A380 DEVELOPMENT

Terminal 2E (104,000m²), constructed from reinforced concrete and 36,000m² of glass, opened in June 2003 and was hailed as a stylish triumph of innovative and practical design. The €750m complex was expected to transform Paris into the most powerful hub in Europe, ahead of Frankfurt and London.

With ten plane parking gates, the terminal's twinned 650m-long main structures could handle ten million passengers a year. Computerised baggage systems would transport luggage with minimal error, while travellers relaxed in the bright, spacious interiors of the tubular buildings. But a little over 11 months after it opened a section of the roof collapsed with tragic consequences.

Moreover, the collapse may dampen excitement over ADP's plan to spend an additional €700m to expand Charles de Gaulle. The new 2E terminal and a nearby S3 complex, set to open in March 2007, were designed to bring new passengers to Paris by offering sleek, interconnecting structures catering to the expanding business plans of Air France and partners including Delta and Korean Air.

Commentators have suggested the roof collapse might prevent the airport from servicing the new super jumbo Airbus A380 when deliveries begin in 2006, or that it might even endanger the entire A380 project, but this has been dismissed as nonsense by both ADP and Airbus Industries. Charles de Gaulle (like Frankfurt and Heathrow, which will welcome the first A380 flights by Singapore Airlines), is building the new S3 terminal largely custom-tailored to the A380's needs.

ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION FOR TERMINAL 2E

Caunton Engineering manufactured the roof trusses for Terminal 2E. The clients were ADP (also the architect), AMEC, ADP and Sechaud et Bossuyt (the structural engineers), and Watson and Bredy Steel (the contract installer). The overseeing engineers for the project were R.F.R. Partnership of Paris.

Caunton manufactured 80% of the roof trusses for Watson on this contract. The trusses were created to very exacting tolerances as they were supporting the glass panels for the roof.

During the initial construction period of Terminal 2E from 1999 to 2004, the checking engineering was done by Bureau Veritas. Construction was carried out by Watson and Bredy, BESIX, HERVE and Léon Grosse with subcontractors Norelec and SATELEC.

Concrete construction was the remit of GTM Construction and glass construction was by Eiffel Construction Metallique and Laubeuf SAS.

REPORTS ON THE ROOF FAILIURE

Bureau Veritas of Paris were the investigating engineers for this tragedy. An official report in Febraury 2005 concluded that the terminal roof had been weakened by temperature changes that had caused the building's outer shell to shift by 1cm or 2cm daily and wore down the concrete roof.

A report released in May 2005 stated that the building was not designed to support the stress it was put under, and the concrete used in its shell weakened gradually to a point that pillars pierced through it. There were fatal flaws in the construction which should have been picked up earlier.

REBUILDING THE TERMINAL ROOF

A new domed roof on Terminal 2E is now the best way to guarantee security for passengers and airport workers it has been decided by ADP. The terminal, used mainly by national carrier Air France, has been only partially reopened.

Based on internal and external studies, ADP has chosen to demolish the jetty and reconstruct the roof at a cost of €100m stating: "Only a reconstruction, guided by the principle of precaution, can assure fully the need for security." ADP now hopes to reopen all of Terminal 2E during the winter of 2007/2008.

The company has said the lower levels of the terminal are safe and can be kept intact while the roof is rebuilt. The French government also stated in mid-2005 that it still plans to press ahead with selling off shares in ADP, which would help to offset the costs of the terminal at a cost of €750m ($973.2m).

RECONSTRUCTION

The demolition phase of the Terminal 2E jetty rehabilitiation program will run from 2006–2007. The lifting contractor is Mediaco and the demolition contractors Brunel, Grenier-Deforge and Mills.

During the reconstruction phase, from 2006–2008, the steel construction will be the responsibility of Castel and Fromaget Constructions Métalliques and the glass construction by Laubeuf SAS.