Central Utility Plant Replacement – LAWA

This project replaced the 50-year-old Central Utility Plant (CUP) and provides a more modern and more efficient facility located west of the LAX Theme Building, in the middle of the Central Terminal Area. The new facility and systems provide additional capacity for air conditioning, heating and lighting of the airline terminals and other airport buildings, enhancing passenger comfort, and reliability of utility service and safety.

CALTROP provided office engineering, specialty inspection and materials testing services.This project provided a replacement of the Central Utility Plant (CUP) to supply heated hot-water and chilled water to the Central Terminal Area (CTA); the required chillers, pumps, generators, boilers and piping to produce and distribute the hot and cold water; and gas turbine driven generators with heat recovery steam generators (cogeneration). It also included interconnection of the Utility Distribution System to the piping system, as well as provided completely new services to the Bradley West Core and Gates and the terminals, and the replacement or bypassing of some piping. Pump room upgrades in each terminal included new chilled and hot water system equipment: pumps, controls, heat exchangers, variable frequency drives and controls. Demolition of the previous CUP, cooling towers, electrical substation and old maintenance buildings took place after completion of the new projects to avoid any disruption to the services.

LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
CLIENT: Los Angeles World Airports
PROJECT VALUE: $438 million

PROJECT FEATURES

  • CUP Replacement
  • New Facility Construction

SERVICES PROVIDED

  • Office Engineering
  • Construction Inspection
  • Specialty Inspection
  • Mill / Shop Fabrication Inspection
  • Materials Testing
  • Materials QA