Denver International Airport (DEN/KDEN), CO, USA

Denver International Airport (DIA) in Colorado, USA was completed in 1995. Since opening, the airport has continued to grow, with a sixth runway being brought into service towards the end of 2003.

Denver Airport – overview

Located 23 miles northeast of downtown Denver, on a plot measuring 34,000 acres (53 square miles), DIA is one of the largest airports in the world.

In 2007, Denver International Airport was the 11th-busiest airport in the world by passenger traffic with 49,863,389 passengers. It was also the fifth-busiest airport in the world by aircraft movements with 614,169 movements.

The airport has one main terminal, the Jeppesen Terminal (with a tension fabric roof as the main architectural feature), totalling more than 1.5 million square feet of space.

Including the three airside concourses, there is over six million square feet of public space. Concourses A, B and C have a total of 89 gates.

Looking to the future, the airport has the potential for an additional terminal and two further concourses, enabling the airport to serve up to 100 million passengers a year.

Statistics

Passenger traffic at Denver International Airport increased again in 2007 and in September 2007, the airport claimed the title of the fourth-busiest airport in the US in terms of traffic with 11.65 million passengers passing through the airport in the first half of 2007.

This figure was a 4.4% increase over the previous six months. In 2005 DIA was voted 'Best Airport in North America' by the readers of Business Traveler Magazine.

Runways

Denver International Airport has six runways. There are four north / south (17R/35L, 17L/35R, 16R/34L and 16L/34R) and two east / west (8/26 and 7/25). The airfield has room for a total of 12 runways.

Five of the runways are 12,000ft long and 150ft wide. The sixth is 16,000ft long and 200ft wide. Each runway approach is equipped with instrument landing systems. The southern approaches to the four parallel north / south runways are rated Category III-b, allowing auto-landing even in the lowest visibility conditions.

Three of the north / south parallel runways are at least 4,300ft apart, the minimum required by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for simultaneous landings in bad weather. Dual or triple streams of aircraft can land simultaneously in these conditions, reducing system delays. No runway crosses another, minimising the chance of aircraft traffic jams or collisions.

Denver airport has six de-icing pads and each can accommodate as many as five or six aircraft at the same time. Planes rarely have to queue after de-icing because four of the pads are located close to the north / south runways 16L/34R and 16R/34L. Aircraft can proceed to takeoff shortly after leaving a pad. The deicing fluids are collected and piped into storage tanks for recycling.

Denver sixth runway

Runway 16R/34L – Denver's much publicised recent addition – is the longest commercial runway in North America. At 16,000ft long and 200ft wide, it is able to accommodate the new generation of massive planes, including the Airbus A380.

The sixth runway project was part of DIA's original master plan to provide a balanced airfield operation. This $166m north / south runway allows larger airplanes and planes with heavier loads or longer trans-oceanic distances to safely take off and land in Denver's high-altitude environment.

The three-mile-long runway was paved in just 41 days. To achieve this, the contractor installed an average of 4,100yd³ of pavement each day. The runway has 3.2 million square feet of concrete surface areas and has 168,000yd³ of concrete.

In July 2004, the runway was the winner of the 2004 Project Achievement Award by the Construction Management Association of America (CMAA). The award category is for public projects valued at more than $100m.

This accolade was followed, in January 2005, with the announcement that the American Concrete Pavement Association (ACPA) had named the sixth runway as winner of an Excellence on Concrete Pavement award.

The general contractor for runway 16R/34L was Interstate Highway Construction, Inc. The designer and engineer on the project was CH2M HILL. SURVCON provided precision surveying for the runway and its associated taxiways.

Car rental area canopy project

Mid-2003 saw the start of a two-year canopy project. The $38m cost was paid by the airport's rental car companies (Advantage, Alamo / National, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, Payless and Thrifty) and increased the size of the areas where rental car shuttle buses pick up and drop off customers.

The project also helps protect commercial vehicle users from bad weather. A translucent Teflon-coated fabric was used as the 'canopy' over the entire level 5 surrounding the terminal building. This material is the same as is used in the terminal's signature roof.

The general contractor on the project was PCL Construction Services, Inc. The canopy was designed by the architect company Leo A Daly.

Denver terminal expansion

The terminal at DIA is called the Jeppesen Terminal after Elrey Jeppesen a pioneer of aviation safety. The terminal is divided into east and west terminals for arrivals and departures. The terminal is then connected to three concourses A, B and C which have 138 gates between them.

The concourses are reached by a passenger bridge or by using an underground transit system. In December 2006 it was announced that concourse C was to be expanded by eight further gates at a cost of $160m. The construction work is expected to be completed by 2010 and will mostly benefit Southwest Airlines.

Concourse B has also been expanded by the addition of two concourses (fingers) on the east side forming a new regional jet concourse. United Airlines now operates only from concourse B.

Plans have also been put forward to extend the Jeppesen Terminal towards the south of the airport property. This will have the effect of increasing the ticket counters and giving space for a new commuter rail station for the FasTracks line.

There may also be a new regional jet concourse constructed as an extension to concourse A but this is still in the planning stage.

Free Wi-Fi

The airport has now become one of the latest to offer free Wi-Fi. FreeFi Networks in conjunction with DIA has now made the airport the largest North American airport to offer free Wi-Fi internet. FreeFi Networks and Disney-ABC Domestic Television are also providing video-on-demand rentals at the airport.

Jim Winston, director of telecommunications at DIA commented: "Usage increased by a factor of ten during the first four weeks this service was available. Our motivation for moving to the FreeFi Networks approach is to deliver a high-quality internet experience to our airport customers, as we continue to provide necessary revenue to the city to satisfy the bondholders that financed the building."

Solar array

In August 2008, a 2MW solar energy system was installed at the airport. The solar photovoltaic system, which spans 7.5 acres at the airport's entrance, will generate over 3 million kilowatt hours of clean electricity annually.

The solar project, which is one of the largest solar installations at any public airport in the US, is a clear sign of Denver's commitment to environmental sustainability by reducing carbon emissions into the atmosphere by more than 6.3 million pounds each year.

Designed and installed by WorldWater, the system uses more than 9,200 Sharp solar panels. The new ground-mounted photovoltaic solar arrays employ a single-axis tracking system that follows the sun during the day for greater efficiency and energy production.