Burns & McDonnell Projects From Across the U.S. Earn Regional Best Project Highlights


Two Burns & McDonnell projects have received Best Project Awards from Engineering News-Record (ENR) magazine in the publication’s respective regions. An additional two projects received ENR Awards of Merit.

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The regional Best Project winners are:

McConnell Air Force Base Air Traffic Control Tower, Wichita, Kansas
Category: Government/Public Building
Serving as the “modern lighthouse” for McConnell Air Force Base, the new 10-story air traffic control tower (ATCT) is a transformational improvement from the antiquated structure that had suffered from operational challenges for more than 50 years. As the prime architect-engineer, Burns & McDonnell provided full design services for the new ATCT, with the team’s proactive planning during the earliest stages of design resulting in minimal modification costs during construction. In all, Burns & McDonnell resource and budget maximization strategies saved the Air Force more than $455,000 at project completion. As an added bonus, the tower achieved LEED-silver certification, and was also awarded an ENR Midwest Safety Award – Award of Merit.

Braniff Centre Redevelopment Project, Dallas, Texas
Category: Airport/Transit
After sitting dormant for more than 20 years, the historic Braniff Operations and Maintenance Base is flying high once again, this time as the Braniff Centre — an aviation hub and multiuse facility designed to generate corporate and commercial momentum along the eastern edge of the Dallas Love Field Airport. In association with The Gravity Company, Burns & McDonnell was selected to provide design-build services for the Braniff Centre’s executive terminal and its components. Working closely alongside the Texas Historic Commission and the site development company CLT (Cowboys, Lincoln Property Company and TAC- The Arnold Companies) our teams developed a design and master plan for the Braniff Airways former mid-century modern facility. Construction of the 26-acre, more than $100-million mixed-use redevelopment facility began in March 2018, and the project’s 18-month timeline was met on schedule and completed in October 2019.

The ENR Awards of Merit were:

Delta Air Lines LaGuardia Concourse Redevelopment, Queens, New York
Category: Airport/Transit
Burns & McDonnell is providing design and construction administration services for a new, consolidated Delta Air Lines terminal at LaGuardia Airport, replacing the existing C and D terminals. The 37-gate headhouse and four-concourse facility will ultimately house state-of-the-art visitor check-in, baggage claim, security, and conferencing and administrative support spaces. As part of the terminal expansion, construction of the first concourse began in 2017 and was completed in October 2019. The first concourse will serve as a model for the remaining three concourses as part of Delta’s $3.9 billion terminal program at LaGuardia, scheduled for majority completion in 2022 and final completion in 2026.

Bonneville Power Administration McNary Substation, Umatilla, Oregon
Category: Industrial/Energy
The McNary project with Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) engaged Burns & McDonnell as the prime engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contractor for upgrades to a brownfield substation required for a new customer transmission line. The scope included a 230-kV line terminal, the removal of the bus tie bay and the addition of a new bus tie. Other work included replacing 115-kV breakers, switches and metering current transformers, along with 115/69-kV transformer, 69-kV bus potential transformer, full rigid bus, direct current (DC) power system and relay system. This substation is critical to many of BPA’s customers, which required flexibility to schedule outage time frames as well as interconnectedness compatibility.
About Burns & McDonnell

Burns & McDonnell is a family of companies bringing together an unmatched team of 7,600 engineers, construction professionals, architects, planners, technologists and scientists to design and build our critical infrastructure. With an integrated construction and design mindset, we offer full-service capabilities with more than 55 offices, globally. Founded in 1898, Burns & McDonnell is a 100% employee-owned company and proud to be on Fortune’s 2020 list of 100 Best Companies to Work For. Learn how we are on call through it all.