The Hindu Business Line : Beijing’s Olympic centrepiece

Signifying the familiar Chinese penchant to think big and act fast, its mammoth multi-billion-dollar airport project for its capital city was thrown open for a press preview on September 12. Sprawling over 245 acres of floor space, the glistening glass and steel structure will be one of the world’s largest airport terminals. China’s national prestige devolving on staging the glittering Games, the centrepiece project for the Olympics (August 8-24, 2008) seems aimed at creating a knock-out first impression for visitors.

Much the same way, the showpiece stadium, termed as the Bird’s Nest after its intricate steel lattice design as well as Beijing’s new television centre that takes the extraordinary form of two upside-down Ls at an impossible angle, among others, are viewed as symbols of China’s new might and ambition, evidence of the Chinese obsession with building bigger, faster and higher than anywhere else.

‘Awesome’ terminal

The new Beijing airport terminal, “truly awesome”, according to its British architect, Lord Norman Foster, has taken less than three years to complete. That compares with Terminal 5 at Heathrow, which was put before a public inquiry in 1995 and approved in 2001, but which is not likely to open until 2008. With a cost tag of $2.8 billion for the new airport terminal structure alone in addition to $4.6 billion billed for all the related infrastructure, Beijing will outdo both the current biggest, Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok, and Heathrow, which is set to double in size when Terminal 5 is finished.

The new Beijing airport design borrows heavily from Chek Lap Kok also designed by Lord Foster. Blending the old and the new, tradition with modernity, the air terminal combines traditional elements with up-to-date technology: its red columns, massive red Chinese pillars, and muted gold roof are meant to evoke an aura of Beijing’s imperial palaces and temples.

High-tech facilities

Scheduled to commence trials in February 2008, to be fully operational in July 2008, the new terminal will provide much-needed additional capacity. Beijing’s second air terminal that was commissioned eight years ago quickly reached its limits, resulting in long queues for check-in and flight delays. Beijing airport handled 48 million passengers in 2006, far above its capacity of 35 million. With the addition of the third terminal, the airport is designed to handle 60 million passengers per annum.

In the words of Prof. Wang Wei of the Civil Aviation University of China, “This will be the most advanced airport of the world in engineering, facilities, technology and IT systems”. While its runway will naturally be capable of handling the A380 super jumbo, its roofed area itself would cover equivalent of 170 football grounds, equipped with 125 new aircraft bays, 300 ticket counters, 445 elevators and escalators.

The $250-million state-of-the-art baggage system installed by Siemens can handle 19,000 pieces of luggage per hour; the baggage sorting conveyor belts will wind for 60 km under the terminal’s surface. The baggage handling system has been designed to sort luggage by RFID tags.

The facility will feature people-mover trains which whisk passengers to distant gates. Several new expressways and a specially-built light rail system along a landscaped ‘green belt’ will connect the airport to the capital. The design makes maximum use of natural light through sky windows and soaring glass facades which face south to reduce energy use.

(The author is a former Managing Director, Concor.)

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