Following the foundation work, the construction of Pier H with an integrated apron control tower began, marking the official start of the structural work for Terminal 3. Work on Pier J also kicked off in the first half of 2019. Between them, the two piers will have 24 adjacent aircraft parking positions. Pier H will have two levels for Schengen passengers and Pier J three floors for non-Schengen travelers.
The two gates are seamless shell structures. Several smaller sections were built about a meter apart and then joined by concrete. Seven sections would form the 400-meter-long Pier H, while the even longer Pier J measuring 600 meters, would comprise eight.
The building inspectorate of the city of Frankfurt issued a permit for the construction of Pier G to begin earlier than originally planned. The new pier would shoulder part of the traffic handled by the existing Terminals 1 and 2.
It is a full-fledged, state-of-the-art aircraft and passenger handling facility with lean, straightforward processes. Once it begins operating, initially four to five million passengers per year will be able to travel via Pier G.
The contract was awarded to the general contractor at the end of 2018, and construction began in June 2019. The first phase of construction work for Pier G was largely complete before the end of 2021.
Fraport began building a new Sky Line people mover to make sure that everyone can get to and from Terminal 3 without hassles, including passengers changing planes at Frankfurt Airport and those who get to Terminal 1 by train. Besides the tracks, a large maintenance building and a new station are being constructed at Terminal 1, with all of the work being done in cramped conditions between other facilities without interrupting operations―a major engineering and logistical challenge. Work on the bored piles for the route began in July 2019.
Start of the special below-ground engineering phase
In the second phase―special below-ground engineering―wet excavation deepened the pit further down to its final depth well below the water table. After specially trained divers had prepared the bottom, concrete was poured to create a solid foundation. To prevent more water from entering the pit from the sides, first it was sealed by retaining walls. After the poured concrete had cured to the required hardness, the water in the pit was pumped out, purified, and returned to the soil.
Terminal 3 must be easy to reach by car, taxi and bus. To ensure this, new access roads were built and the Zeppelinheim interchange on the A5 motorway was enlarged and extended. The first major related project was construction of the access and exit ramps for the elevated drive-by platform, which would be at the same height as the departures level of Terminal 3. First a total of 48 foundation piles 1.2 meters in diameter with lengths of up to 18 meters were driven into the ground. Their role was to stabilize the ground so the ramps would have a sturdy foundation. Then cages made of steel reinforcement bars (rebars), with a length of nine meters and weighing 4.5 tonnes, were lifted onto the piles, welded together, and filled with concrete. For the access ramp, molds were made of appropriately shaped formwork and then filled with concrete.
Right after the groundbreaking ceremony in October 2015, the first phase of construction got underway: dry excavation. A pit spanning 65,900 square meters was created in only six months. To accomplish this feat, excavators removed enough earth to fill an average of around 300 dump trucks a day. At the peak of activity, the volume amounted to 5,500 cubic meters per day.
A very special day: after more than 15 years of intensive planning, permit applications, and tests, the official starting gun went off at Frankfurt Airport for Europe’s largest-ever privately funded infrastructure project. Four hundred Fraport employees and 200 invited politicians and business leaders were on hand for this momentous occasion.
The official approval for building Terminal 3 was a major milestone―the planning work was then able to really get going. In the first phase of the project, two piers with 24 adjacent aircraft parking positions were built. The permit also stipulated that the new Sky Line station there would be in a raised position alongside the terminal drive-by platform. The original plans had called for it to be on the first underground level of the terminal building.
2001 to 2005
Architectural and implementation competition
No fewer than 46 architectural firms all over Europe submitted their ideas for the new terminal at Frankfurt Airport. Foster and Partners of London won the architectural competition on June 28, 2002 by convincing the eight-member jury with a modern, sustainable concept. In the subsequent competition to choose who would design the actual terminal, Frankfurt-based architect Christoph Mäckler won out against nine other architectural firms with his credo of “modern with a feel-good ambiance”. The three main parts of the building―the check-in hall, the airside areas after the security checkpoints, and the central marketplace―were conceived as modules that could be flexibly modified as required.
Following talks between Fraport and the city of Frankfurt on the expansion of the airport in the late 1990s, a comprehensive two-year mediation process was initiated. Besides Fraport, it involved representatives of the government of the state of Hesse, residents of nearby communities, citizens’ initiatives, employers’ associations, and trade unions. Over the course of two years, the participants agreed on the general conditions for expanding the airport. In June of 2000, the government of Hesse approved the project. Immediately afterward, the supervisory board of Fraport AG publicly announces its plan to expand the airport.
