Parsons, CH2M Hill win role on Mexico’s massive new airport

US-based firms Parsons and CH2M Hill have been selected by the government of Mexico to help build a major new airport in Texcoco, 25km northeast of Mexico City.

The first phase of the New International Airport for Mexico City (artist’s render pictured), billed as the new "gateway to Latin America", will have three runways and will be able to handle 50 million passengers a year. Subsequent phases will add three more runways and will bring eventual annual handling capacity to 120 million passengers.

The new airport will relieve pressure on the country’s existing international airport, which is thought to be at saturation point after handling 34.6 million passengers last year.

The total cost of the multi-phased scheme designed by a team including the UK’s Foster + Partners has been estimated at $9.2bn.

Parsons, as prime consultant, and CH2M Hill join local firm FOA Consultores on the project’s program management team. The scope of work includes program and project management, design management, construction management and closing the existing airport.

CH2M Hill said it would be "perhaps the largest greenfield airport of our generation to be built in Latin America".

The firm’s transportation president, Terry Ruhl, said: "The New International Airport for Mexico City will be the gateway to Latin America, competing with the best airports in Asia, the Middle East and around the world."

Last year a collaboration between Foster + Partners, Mexico’s Fernando Romero Enterprises and Netherlands Airport Consultants won the international competition to design the new airport. At 470,000 sq m, it will be one of the world’s largest airports. Foster + Partners said it will revolutionise airport design, with the entire terminal enclosed within a continuous lightweight gridshell.

It is also being billed as the world’s most sustainable airport: with a solar farm and a rainwater collection system, it is intended to meet the LEED platinum standard.

For more background, click here.

See here for how Mexico’s new airport compares to other expansion plans around the world.