It may look like an unassuming stretch of below-grade ductwork, but this TMG construction site is an important component in reinforcing the protection of the U.S. transportation infrastructure. By early next year, the three miles of trenches and mounds of dirt along an area of Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD) will provide critical electronic surveillance data to security personnel.

TMG was recently awarded this multimillion dollar contract by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) to install a new perimeter intrusion detection system as part of IAD’s $3.4 billion capital improvement program to increase capacity and improve security measures. The contract calls for building a state-of-the-art power and communications infrastructure, performing major excavating and foundation work, installing dozens of pole mounted cameras as well as programming and testing the system’s software.

TMG has teamed with Natelco Corporation to construct camera signals powered by a multi-voltage electrical plan consisting of high-, medium- and low-voltage systems as well as a fiber-optic transmission system. Lord & Company Inc. will supply and install the video surveillance equipment while Rox Engineering Inc. will provide geotechnical services. TMG is providing the project management and is self-performing all of the civil and most of the site electrical work.

A key challenge for the TMG team is working around a considerable number of underground utilities. Fortunately, the company has vast experience working in occupied spaces and active environments and is well equipped to cause few - if any - disruptions to neighboring operations. The TMG project team is headed by Ken Matuszewski as the general superintendent, John Lipscomb as the civil superintendent, Joe Matthews as the project manager and Chad Luebbehusen as the quality control engineer

The project builds on TMG’s past success of installing a campus-wide monitoring and alarm network to provide AED first-responders paramedic backup at IAD and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) as well as complex fire-life safety upgrades of Terminal A’s fire alarms and power distribution system at DCA.

Awarded last spring, the Dulles Perimeter Security project is already half complete and months ahead of schedule. "This project is an example of how intelligent people combined with intelligent technology are identifying and eliminating threats to our national security," says Matthews. "We're proud to be a part of this important mission."