Suvarnabhumi phase 2 kicks off
Airports of Thailand has begun development of Suvarnabhumi's second phase with a budget of Bt62.5 billion.
EPM Consortium has been hired to manage the development of the second phase. Flying Officer Anirut Thanomkulbutra, president of AOT, said after the signing ceremony that Bangkok’s primary airport would acquire more space to handle the expected increase in passengers. Phase 2 construction is expected to be completed by 2017.
Since Suvarnabhumi Airport opened at the end of 2006, passenger totals have consistently increased. Last year, about 48 million passengers made their way through the airport, and it is expected that this year the number will increase to 51 million, with continued passenger growth forecast for the future. As a result, AOT needs to speed up construction of Phase 2. The project will enable the airport to handle 15 million more passengers per year, bringing the total capacity to 60 million passengers.
The Suvarnabhumi Phase 2 project will cover four main areas. First, there will be a secondary concourse with 216,000 square metres of usable space. It will be equipped with 28 near-terminal parking bays and a remote parking bay with 960,000sqm of space. This will also encompass a southern tunnel and passenger-transport system.
Second, a new passenger terminal |will be constructed in the east of the |airport complex. An airline office building and a parking building will also be built.
Third, an infrastructure system will be designed and constructed.
The last area involves project management.
Chaisak Sripadungtham, president of PCBK International, the leading company within the EPM Consortium, said the group had been selected to manage Phase 2 of the airport expansion over fiscal years 2011-2017.
The contract will cover 2012-18 with a total budget of Bt809.9 million. The project will be managed for 70 months, with the duty of overseeing every step from the overall design to selecting qualified contractors.
Now that the project-management contract has been officially signed, Chaisak said the first step would be to undertake a study with various models to set up the overall framework. This will include the design criteria. Then tenders will be issued to select designers and contractors. Construction is expected to start by mid-2015 and the expansion to open by the middle of 2017.
EPM Consortium is a collaboration of consulting companies formed to manage giant construction projects. The companies include PCBK International, Chotichinda Mouchel Consultants, Epsilon and Oriental Consultants.
