San Francisco International Airport Materials Testing
Fugro was been awarded the Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) contract on the ART-Guideway (Articulated Rail Transit) portion of the San Francisco International Airport's $2 billion expansion project. This airport expansion involved the addition of two new international wings off the existing main terminal building, the construction of the elevated ART-Guideway people mover, and numerous surface and ground transportation improvement projects.

The ART-Guideway will move people and baggage between the main passenger terminals and public transportation facilities such as the new BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit System) station to be located at the West End of the airport. The people mover will also transport passengers to the new outlying long-term parking lots, located as far as two miles north of the airport. The airport and transportation expansion projects will take almost 15 years to complete.

The ART-Guideway project consists of six miles of elevated concrete superstructure, supported on a Fundex-type pile foundation. Fundex piles are hollow metal casings that are drilled or "screwed" into place and then filled with structural concrete. This type of pile was selected in order to reduce construction vibration (or pounding) which is typical of driven precast, prestressed concrete piles. At a $250 million construction cost, the ART-Guideway project is the second largest portion of the airport expansion, second only to the new international wings on the terminal itself.

Construction began on the ART-Guideway on September 1, 1997 and extended through September of 2000. At the peak of construction, Fugro and its subcontractors had from three to six full-time employees working on shifts around the clock. The project involved the pouring of over 100,000 cubic yards of structural concrete, requiring the molding of between 6,000 and 8,000 concrete compression test cylinders. Fugro employees also performed rebar and welding inspection and testing and concrete batch plant inspections. Fugro's initial contract for the project was slightly more than $1.8 million.