Denver International Airport officials have decided to go big in their quest to finish the terminal renovation project, unveiling proposed contract additions that would send the $770 million endeavor soaring to nearly $1.9 billion.
If approved, the additional work would extend construction out from 2024 through 2028 — potentially a full decade after Great Hall project construction got underway.
The upshot from $1.1 billion in proposed contract additions disclosed late Thursday to the Denver City Council is that DIA is seeking to add back several major components that officials cut from the project once it ran into budget and schedule turbulence early on. Those include full relocation of the main security checkpoints and completion of new check-in areas for all airlines.
After terminating the original project team, DIA officials reduced the scope to keep it within a revised budget of $770 million, which accounted for the original $650 million budget and a $120 million contingency fund for unforeseen costs or overruns. At the time, then-CEO Kim Day repeatedly promised to hold the line.
But DIA’s pitch now is that all of the work will be needed in coming years to keep up with rapid growth in passenger traffic, which has been disrupted only by the coronavirus pandemic. DIA, in part because it serves as a domestic connecting hub for several airlines, has seen one of the quickest recoveries among U.S. airports, recently approaching 2019 levels of traffic.