Los Angeles International Airport Automated People Mover
The Automated People Mover (APM) system at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is a Public-Private Partnership project where the developer, LINXS Constructors, is responsible to design, build, finance, operate, and maintain the system for Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) under a long-term lease agreement. The APM system will transport passengers approximately 2.25 miles from a future Consolidated Rental Car facility to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. With train arrivals every two minutes, this massive LAWA project will impact the face of LAX forever as well as relieving the traffic congestion of one of the world’s busiest airports. With over $2.4 Billion in hard costs, the APM project includes six stations, eight elevated pedestrian walkways, seven parking garage vertical circulation cores, a maintenance facility and miles of elevated guideway.
Quick Facts
- Size: 2.25 miles
- Architect: HNTB | HDR Architecture
- Construction Cost: $4,900,000,000
- Contractor: Balfour Beatty | Fluor
As part of the LINXS team, Buehler designed three pedestrian walkways totaling over 850 lineal feet with a max clear span of 150 feet. The pedestrian walkways utilize long span steel structures that span between single large diameter cantilevered concrete columns supported on single cast-in-drilled-hole foundations. The pedestrian walkways connect the new WCTA Station to three different terminals which allowed for extensive coordination with various external design teams as well as LAWA. Buehler used performance-based design to optimize the design of the bridges and their impacts on supporting elements designed by other stakeholders.
Buehler also designed all seven garage vertical cores which serve as the vertical link between seven different existing parking structures and the seven new pedestrian walkways. To round out our project team experience, Buehler provided extensive peer review services for the WCTA Station as well as various structural scope items for five of the existing parking structures and one off-campus structure.
The APM Project exemplifies the multi-disciplinary coordination and communication required to design and construct a mega-project at LAX by 2023, just in time for the 2028 Olympics!
Rendering credit: HNTB
