ACRP Report 96 - Apron Planning and Design Handbook

ACRP has released a report on Aircraft Apron planning and design.  The key chapters are:

- Apron Planning and design Process

- understanding the Apron Environment

- Apron Planning and design

I have extracted some diagrams from the handbook that I thought were interesting.

Source: ACRP Report 96

Jet Blast Contours

What is a GSE vehicle? Airport Ground Support Equipment (GSE) List andPictures

ACRP Report 78 "Airport Ground Support Equipment (GSE) : Emission Reduction Strategies, Inventory, and Tutorial" has a list of the vehicles that can be found at an airport. I have extracted the list and it is shown below. It is the most comprehensive list I have come across and it is extremely useful for the airport novice as it has pictures.

As part of airport planning, it is essential to be familiar with the vehicles that can be be found at an airport. The airside roadway system has to be planned with these vehicles in mind. Some are oversized in terms of width, some are tall, some move slowly. Other considerations are the maintenance, refueling and washing of these vehicles. The staging and storage of these vehicles are another concern. In addition, their movement should not interfere with the safety and movement of the aircraft.

Source of pics: TRB ACRP Report 78

Managing Utility information at Airports (ACRP Synthesis Report 34)

Are there critical utilities that run through this airport project area that need to be diverted?
Where is the nearest electrical or water tap off point for this new airport building?
Why was the electrical cable serving the airport terminal cut off accidentally by the contractor?

These are just some of the questions that an Airport Planner might ask with regards to subsurface utilities at the airport.

Airport Utilities run throughout the airport campus.  The information for these utilities (water lines, electrical cables, communications fiber, wastewater, gas etc. is normally found in the as-built drawings of the particular project that constructed it.  This means that there is a need to refer to a number of drawings scattered throughout the Plan room or a number of CAD files on the Airport CAD server.  Keeping track of this information is important to save time on new projects and reduce the risk of accidental damage to existing subsurface utilities.

This ACRP Synthesis report brings together existing information about how airport manage this information and provides some ideas on how to do this better.  Click here for this report.

ACRP Synthesis Report 34 - Subsurface Utility Engineering Information Management for Airports (2012)
No. of pages: 60
Duration of Research: 1 May 2011 - 31 May 2012
Research Agencies: J. H. Anspach Consulting and Grafton Technologies, Inc.
Cost: $30,000

What is the report about?
- "It identifies ways in which information on subsurface utilities is collected, maintained and used by airports, their consultants, and the FAA to enhance safety during infrastructure development programs at airports.  It compares the current state of technology and effective processes from other industry sectors with what airports do today, allowing airports to consider areas for improvement."

What did I like about the report?
1.  It provided information on how information on subsurface utilities is collected and maintained by airports.
2.  Airport have difficulty collecting, maintaining subsurface utility data and providing it to consultants in an easy manner.  This report helps airports to identify cost effective ways of managing the problem.  CAD, print etc.
3.  Introduces the concept of Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), technology etc.

Which parts of the report are useful for planners?
- This report is useful for planners who maintain utility information or are responsible for updating current airport utility maps.
- The concept of Utility Quality Level (QL) that incorporates origin, qualifications, technology, and trust/accountability.  ASCE's Standard Guidelines for the Collection and Depiction of Existing Subsurface Utility Data, CI/ASCE 38-02. 

"QL is broken down into the following four levels:
• Utility quality level A (QLA)—Information obtained by the actual exposure (or verification of previously exposed and surveyed utilities) and subsequent direct measurement of subsurface utilities, usually at a specific point.
• Utility quality level B (QLB)—Information obtained through the application of appropriate surface geophysical methods to infer the existence and approximate horizontal position of subsurface utilities. QLB data should be reproducible by surface geophysics at any
point of their depiction. The horizontal locations are surveyed to the horizontal positional accuracy requirements of the project or any required statute.
• Utility quality level C (QLC)—Information obtained by surveying and plotting visible utility features and by using professional judgment in correlating this information to quality level D information.
• Utility quality level D (QLD)—Information derived from existing records or oral recollections."

Source: ACRP Synthesis Report 34

Airport Signage Handbook (ACRP Report 52)

A must-read if you are involved in Airport Terminal or Landside Signage.  I wish it was published when my airport was going through our signage upgrade exercise.  It would have saved the airport and the consultant we engaged a lot of time.  Click here for the report.

ACRP Report 52 - Wayfinding and Signing Guidelines for Airport Terminals and Landside (2011)
No. of pages: 255
Duration of Research: 21 Aug 08 - 2 Mar 11
Lead Research Agency / Principal Investigator: Gresham, Smith and Partners / James R Harding
Cost: $250,000

What is in this report?
"- Single, up to date resource for airport operators as they review, update, enhance or develop their airport wayfinding and signing plan.
- Focused on 4 areas:
     1.  Roadways (on-airport, off-airport)
     2.  Parking
     3.  Curbside & Ground Transportation
     4.  Terminal
- Guidelines that discuss how to develop a wayfinding strategy"

What did I like about this report?
1.  Updated resource for Airport Signage in Terminal & Landside.  The previous resource was updated in 2001.
2.  Lots of examples and pictures of signs
3.  Comprehensive resource
4.  Airports don't have to experiment (save time and money) now that they have an updated handbook.
5.  Guide to provide to local signage consultants who are not used to airport environments.
6.  Write-up about Dynamic Signage (Changeable Message Signs) on the Airport Campus

What parts of the report are useful for planners?
The whole report is useful for planners involved in signage projects:
- Airport Roadway Signage
- Airport Parking Signage
- Airport Curbside Signage
- Airport Terminal Signage

Is this report useful for non-American Airports?
Yes, since signage guidelines are quite universal. 

There are of course some unique elements that pertain to the US Airport Industry like 'Cell Phone Lot Signs'.  These are essentially waiting areas for drivers who wait in their cars till they get a call from the passenger they are waiting to pick up.  These lots are popular in the US because it gives drivers a place to wait rather than waiting on the terminal curb. 

There is also a need to convert the American English signs to the English term that your airport and community uses. 

Airport Apron Management and Control (ACRP Report 62)

The ACRP report 62 "Airport Apron Management and Control Programs" (click here) is primarily focused on safety on the aircraft parking apron. It also talks about regulations and who is responsible for those regulations and safety on the apron or ramp.


I found it useful because it contains information about how airport aprons/ramps are managed and contains case studies of different airports.   This report also has extensive coverage about apron management and control practices outside the United States.

The following is a partial extract from Section 9 of the report:

"U.S. airports do not typically provide the same level of active management and control of the apron environment as is provided at non-U.S. airports. Instead, U.S. airports rely primarily on the tenant airlines and ground service providers to safely and effectively manage the leased apron environment and to comply with operating procedures in the common-use (typically unleased) non-movement areas.

As expected, at the airports outside the United States, apron management and control is typically much more centralized through a specific apron control unit or department. These non-U.S. airports are typically responsible for more functions than airports in the United States, including gate allocation and assignment, ground handling, and integration with air traffic control. This is in part due to the lower prevalence of exclusive-use facility leases at non-U.S. airports. With facilities (i.e., gates) operated on a preferential or common-use basis, non-U.S. airports tend to play a more active role in the management and control of the apron areas.

 In the United States, the respective airports and tenant airlines share responsibility for these functions. In the cases where an airline uses a contractor for specific servicing func-tions like ground handling, catering, or fueling, the operational coordination is directly between the airline and the contractor, without involvement by the airport.  Airports typically do regulate the standards by which the contractor must operate in the apron area, but these are typically the same requirements and standards placed on an airline.

Outside the United States, apron management and control programs have evolved away from the need to allocate resources, specifically aircraft parking positions/gates (as well as ticketing and baggage claim areas), which are structured as common-use positions where the airport assigns aircraft to specific gates on a dynamic basis based on demand and specific aircraft type/size. This differs from the exclusive/ preferential-use model that is prevalent in the United States whereby the airlines lease specific gates and the apron areas associated with those gates and are responsible for managing the operations within that leased space.

In the United States, the gate assignments for the most part are made by the leasing airlines, which, as noted, have access to a specific set of gates that are leased under exclusive-/preferential-use terms. In some cases, there are U.S. airports that control common-use gates or remote aircraft parking positions. In these cases, the operations department for the airports is generally responsible for allocating those resources, but it was not observed to be on a scale comparable to Toronto, Beijing, or Zurich. The common-use gates observed in the United States were not used on a regular basis but more typically on a contingency basis as in the event of a charter flight or unplanned maintenance issue requiring a parking position outside of an airline's exclusively or preferentially leased gates.

These differing lease structures represent the single biggest difference in how the responsibilities of apron management are approached within and outside the United States. Although the apron control units outside the United States are primarily responsible for gate allocation, they offer a  single department from which all aspects of apron control can be managed. In the United States the operational and safety functions performed by those airports' apron control units are the same functions performed by a combination of parties: airport, airlines, and ground handling companies."

Sections 9.1 and 9.2 further elaborate on Non-US and US Airport Apron Management and Control.

Opening / Activating a new airport terminal (ACRP Synthesis Report 20)

ACRP Synthesis Report 20 (click here) addresses the activation of a new Airport Terminal.

"TRB’s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Synthesis 20: Airport Terminal Facility Activation Techniques explores lessons learned during terminal activations at 13 domestic and international airport facilities. The report is designed to help identify effective airport terminal facility activation practices."

The most recent case study that can be looked at is the opening of Delhi Airport Terminal 3 in India. It opened with the shifting of International flights there in late July 2010. The Domestic flights were to shift there shortly after. This has since been delayed till after the Commonwealth Games in Oct 2010.

Having traveled through Delhi Terminal 2 before, I must say that the opening of Terminal 3 is a good thing. As always, there are teething problems which I am sure will be worked out in due course.

Problems at the newly opened Delhi Airport Terminal 3.

1. Power Supply

2. Water Supply

3. Road Congestion

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Domestic-operations-to-shift-to-T3-in-Sept/articleshow/6307661.cms

4. Baggage issues

5. Shops which have not opened

6. Directions/wayfinding to the new terminal

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Baggage-handling-still-a-pain-at-T3-route-from-city-not-clear/articleshow/6253911.cms

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Dead-phones-malfunctions-mar-T3-on-Day-2/Article1-579664.aspx

http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/article570863.ece

Personally, I think it is still a great achievement that the terminal (48 contact gates, 502,000sqm or 5.4million sqft) has been opened before the Commonwealth Games. The Terminal opened in July 2010, just barely 4 years after the signing of the agreement (in Apr 2006) for a private operator GMR to operate New Delhi Airport.

Useful Resources / Applied Research Reports for Airport Planners - ACRP Reports

These are the Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) reports which, in my view, are of greater interest to airport planners.  The ACRP is part of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) and is funded to the tune of US$10-15million a year by the United States Federal Government.

Each report answers a specific problem which the US Airport industry is facing (Applied Research) and takes about 2-3 years of research.  Each report costs between $300,000 to $400,000.  However, because it is federally funded and their aim is the widest dissemination possible, the pdf files are available for free at their website.

The synthesis reports cost less and take a shorter time to publish because it not new research but a collection of what's out there on a particular airport topic in one report.

Click here to go to the ACRP report library. I have also added hyperlinks for each of the reports listed below. (updated Dec 7, 2010)

Report 4 Ground Access to Airports - Public Transportation

Report 10 Innovations Terminal Facilities

Report 13 Integrating Airport Information Systems

Report 16 Managing Small Airports (useful for overview of airports in general)

Report 20 Strategic Planning

Report 21 Project Delivery Methods

Report 23 Passenger Processing Rate

Report 24 Parking Strategies

Report 25 Terminal Planning

Report 27 Enhancing Land Use Compatibility

Report 31 Aviation Capacity Issues in Coastal Mega-regions

Report 30 Common Use at Airports

Report 34 Constrained Parking

Report 35 Offsite Airport Terminals

Report 38 Airspace, Objects and their effects on Airports

Report 40 Curbside and Terminal Area Roadway Operations

Synthesis Report 1 Innovative Finance

Synthesis Report 2 Forecasting

Synthesis Report 5 Ground Access choice

Synthesis Report 8 Common Use Facilities and Equipment

Synthesis Report 10 Airport Sustainability Practices

Synthesis Report 14 Airport Systems Planning

Synthesis Report 17 Airport Development and Federal Environmental Review

Synthesis Report 19 Revenue Diversification

Synthesis Report 20 Airport Terminal Activation

Related Posts:
Books for Airport Planners

Airport Passenger Terminal Planning and Design Guidebook

The Transportation Research Board (TRB)'s Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) has released the long awaited Terminal Planning and Design Guidebook. The other 2 industry standards with regards to Terminal planning that I am aware of are:

1. FAA Advisory Circular 150/5360-13 (4) - Planning and Design Guidelines for Airport Terminal Facilities published in 1988 (click here)

2. IATA Airport Development Reference Manual (ADRM) published in 2004 (click here)

Pdfs of the new guidebook are available for download (for free) at the following links:

Volume 1: Guidebook (click here)

"explores the passenger terminal planning process and provides in a single reference document, the important criteria and requirements needed to help address emerging trends and develop potential solutions for airport passenger terminals. It addresses the airside, terminal building, and landside components of the terminal complex."

Volume 2: Spreadsheet Models and User's Guide (click here)

"consists of a CD-ROM containing 11 spreadsheet models, which include practical learning exercises and several airport-specific sample data sets to assist users in determining appropriate amodel inputs for their situations, and a user's guide to assist the user in the correct use of each model. The models on the CD-ROM includes such aspects of terminal planning as design hour determination, gate demand, check-in and passenger and baggage screening, which require complex analyses to support planning decisions.