Plane Train extension hits halfway point

go toward Concourse T in the other direction, because there’s no separate area for trains to move to when another train is arriving.

But the tunnel extension will fix that lack of space, the airport says.

Hartsfield-Jackson handled more than 110 million passengers in 2019 before traffic declined more than 60% in 2020 due to the pandemic. Passenger counts are rebounding as travelers take to the skies again.

The price tag for the project has fluctuated over the years, after an earlier estimate of $307 million. The now $331 million cost includes the excavation and construction of the tunnel, the additional train cars, new elevators and a fourth escalator for passengers getting off the Plane Train at baggage claim.

Late night disruptions

The construction has caused some disruption for travelers on late-arriving flights over the last year, which will continue through completion. After around 10-11 p.m. each day, Plane Train passengers arriving in Atlanta must walk the last leg of the trip from Concourse T to baggage claim. Plane Train operations return to normal each morning, when construction shuts down for the night.

“We’re having to do this very stealthily,” said Gabrielle Ferro, project manager for Clark Construction.

The process to relocate an elevator also means there are fewer escalators for passengers arriving at baggage claim.

The disruptions give a hint at the flurry of activity going on just outside the terminal and beneath the airport.

Work to dig a shaft down into the ground outside the west end of the domestic terminal began in 2020 by a joint venture of Clark Construction, Atkinson Construction and Forest Parkbased Technique Concrete Construction. To excavate the tunnel, workers blasted 45,000 pounds of dynamite. Each blast allowed 5-7 feet of progress per night, with the tunnel excavation completed in January 2022.

Nissalke said during the digging, workers found concrete slabs from the old Interstate 85 that used to run through where the airport sits today, before it was moved to make way for the terminal, which opened in 1980.

Now, the construction team is waterproofing and sealing the walls and completing the floor of the tunnel, before the rest of the work to extend the track begins. Workers descend into the tunnel in a metal cage that is lifted by a crane and lowered into the shaft underground. Due to a high water table, water must be pumped out of the tunnel during construction.

The project also is complicated by the fact that the tunnel is being built beneath the Sky Train to the airport’s rental car facility and MARTA foundations.

“We knew the job would be tough when we went into it,” said Billy Freeman Jr., CEO of Technique Construction. “It’s tremendous pressure.”

Hartsfield-Jackson handled more than 110 million passengers in 2019 before traffic declined more than 60% in 2020 due to the pandemic.

A cage that is being lifted by a crane to transport crew between the ground and the tunnel under construction beneath Hartsfield-Jackson International shows the expanse of the project from above ground on June 9. The $331 million project has been planned for years and is expected to be finished in 2024.

HYOSUB SHIN/HYOSUB.SHIN@AJC.COM The tunnel extension will add a “turn-back” area for trains that will allow the increase in capacity. Today, a train headed to the domestic baggage claim station at the end of the line must wait for another train to turn back, but the tunnel extension adds the necessary space for more trains, the airport says.

MIGUEL MARTINEZ/MIGUEL.MARTINEZJIMENEZ@AJC.COM The 700-foot-long tunnel under construction beneath Hartsfield-Jackson will extend the Plane Train track, enabling more trains to transport passengers among the terminals and concourses.