Michaud Cooley Erickson recently completed all mechanical and electrical engineering for the new Humphrey International Terminal, consisting of eight jetways, 364,000 square feet of support space and a 7,500 car parking ramp. Incorporated in MCE’s design were five 3,000 amp 480 volt services for incoming power, a 1500 KVA self-contained emergency generator, two 1,000-ton chillers, one 400-ton chiller and systems having VFD on the secondary heating and chilled water pumps. In addition, MCE engineers designed the support system to sustain such high-tech programs as the Electronic Visual Information Display System (EVIDS), Multi Use Flight Information Display System (MUFIDS) and the Baggage Claim Directory (BCD).

LightSpaces, MCE’s lighting group, designed the lighting scheme for the new terminal, which includes custom designed pendants, 32-watt compact fluorescent downlights, 2’x2’direct/indirect fixtures and linear fluorescent covers. All designs are aimed at creating a safe and welcoming atmosphere for airport visitors and staff.

One particularly challenging aspect of this project was the coordination of high-tech systems, which work independently, yet must at crucial times interface with other systems. For example, the fire alarm must communicate multilingual emergency evacuation voice messages through the terminal’s paging system, which must interface with the terminal’s telephone system to allow information to be electronically disseminated to different gates. Despite the engineering-intensive nature of this project, the team at Michaud Cooley Erickson collaborated with the entire design team to ensure that the Humphrey International Terminal was completed on time and on budget.