Airport terminal project flagged
City controller questions $85M spent in ‘a hole’
The Houston Airport System has spent $85 million on a much-delayed terminal redevelopment project but has little to show for it, City Controller Chris Brown said in a Monday memorandum raising questions about the billion-dollar undertaking.
More than $50 million earmarked for an expansion of the Mickey Leland International Terminal at Bush Intercontinental Airport went to consultants intended to augment city staff, including reimbursements for those consultants’ travel and relocation expenses, according to Brown’s memo, which cited data through Nov. 29.
The only tangible construction work accomplished with the funds since the controller’s office began tracking the project in 2015, Brown wrote, is an $11 million office building that will house the consultants and staff working on what is expected to be a six-year renovation of the terminal.
Brown’s memo, which was sent to city council members, Mayor Sylvester Turner and airports director Mario Diaz, is the latest salvo in what has been a three-year drama over the future of Terminal D, a controversy first spurred by concerns over possible improprieties in city officials’ selection of the vendors who would carry out the project. The project plan since has been retooled after officials discovered flaws in their original approach.
The initial $1.7 billion plan would have torn down and rebuilt Terminal D. The current plan, a $1.2 billion effort airport officials unveiled in September, essentially would combine Terminals D and E, consolidating all ticketing counters,
security lanes and baggage claims into Terminal E.
The dollars involved come from airline fees, not property, sales or other general tax revenues.
Brown commended efforts to restrain the project’s costs, but said documentation he has been given does not seem to justify the spending involved, particularly since many expenses went to project managers who had no active project to manage.
“If we’re willing to blow $85 million — or back out the $11 million, call it $73 million — just kind of idling, what about going forward? Are you going to be using taxpayers dollar in the most efficient manner?” Brown said.
Diaz and Andy Icken, who oversees the airport system as the city’s chief development officer, said as the project entered its original design phase it became clear changes would be required because there would not be sufficient space for curbside passenger pickup or for baggage belts, nor sufficient capacity on the surrounding service roads.
Icken said he appreciated that Brown acknowledged the reduction in cost and said he thinks the project spending to date has been necessary to arrive at the right plan.
“Yes, we had one set of plans. As we dug deeper into them, we decided to change them,” Icken said. “Frankly, I’ll hold my head up and say that planning resulted in a reduction in the total project from $1.7 billion to $1.2 billion. In order to achieve this kind of reduction, we really did need to bring in a lot more experts to make this happen. I’m comfortable with that.”
The current plan, like its predecessor, is scheduled for completion in 2024, despite little progress having been made since contracts first were sent to city council for approval in late 2015.
Term-limited city controller Ronald Green and, weeks later, his successor, Brown, prevented the items from reaching a vote, citing potential violations of procurement rules and other concerns. Turner, also in his first weeks in office,
tossed the contracts and started the bidding process over.
Councilman Jerry Davis, who has presided over discussions of the terminal project as chair of the council’s economic development committee, said he looks forward to getting the Turner administration’s response to Brown’s concerns.
“If what the controller said is valid, then I question what’s going on at the airport,” Davis said. “I was told things did halt. I look forward to asking more questions.”
Councilman Greg Travis echoed that.
“I’m glad (Brown) is bringing it up, because that’s a lot of money that we’ve spent that went down a hole,” Travis said. “What did we get for it? Nobody has been able to tell me that. You get generalities.”
On Wednesday, the council is being asked to approve a $33 million design contract for HOK and a $30 million construction management contract for Hensel Phelps to renovate and expand new ticketing, security checkpoint and baggage claim areas, as well as concessions spaces and offices for federal staff, in connection with the terminal project.
Brown said he has no reason to question the items up for a vote this week, but said he saw the timing as an avenue to prompt a discussion of the project’s costs.