Travelers at Dulles International Airport (IAD) were recently treated to a glimpse of the future when officials unveiled a walk-in model of the new underground train system that will transport them from the Main Terminal to Midfield Concourses as part of IAD’s major capital improvement project. Designed to replace the airport’s aging and cumbersome mobile lounges, the state-of-the-art Aerotrain is scheduled to be operational in 2009.

TMG constructed the exhibit area and the mockup train, which the public may tour. Headed by TMG Construction Engineer Chad Luebbehusen and Superintendent Ken Matuszewski, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) project involved disassembling and reassembling a full-scale mockup of the train as well as adding ADA-compliant ramps, stairs and railings, audio-visuals accompaniments and other elements of construction to help the public envision and experience the future transportation system.

Located on the lower level of IAD’s Main Terminal, the exhibit allows airport passengers to walk inside the train car and view a looped, flat-panel presentation of what they will experience when the Aerotrain is operational. Subcontractor Potomac AV Inc. did a clever job of installing a flat-panel system behind a mirrored wall of the train car. "They removed an area of reflective material on the mirror panel, so it appears that there’s a mounted screen, but it’s all part of the mirror," explained Luebbehusen. Kudos also goes to Baltimore-based subcontractor RailPlan International Inc., which dismantled and reassembled the model train car that was shipped to MWAA from Japan by Sumitomo Corporation of America.

"The trickiest part was how to deconstruct the train, which was built production style," noted Luebbehusen. "Joe Dotterweich at RailPlan really did an excellent job of disassembling the car, so it could be reassembled inside a small space in the IAD terminal." The disassembly involved cutting the car into puzzle pieces and matching paint colors so the reassembled train car looked "as good or better" than the original, said Luebbehusen. Subcontractor E Electric also did an excellent job of converting the car’s electrical system to U.S. code.

The finished Aerotrain car was unveiled in mid-September to a large representation from national and local media. The press event, thanks in large part to TMG’s project team, took place without a hitch. "I’m not sure it could have gone any better than it did," said MWAA’s Leslie Pereira. "The Airports Authority is very pleased." She especially thanked Chad Luebbehusen for his "painstaking attention to detail."

When the Aerotrain project is complete, each car of the 29-car system will transport up to 100 passengers and will travel at a maximum speed of 42 mph through tunnels located 60 feet under ground. Travel time between stations will be a mere 72 seconds with an expected wait time of less than two minutes between trains. The project also calls for new departures and arrivals areas, a security mezzanine, a train platform, 20 elevators and 32 escalators. The Aerotrain project comprises $1.3 billion of IAD’s $3.4 billion capital improvement program.