Cue the pump-up jams -- the Denver International Airport's Great Hall project is starting up again. But also maybe dial it down because first it's going to get a little hairy.
Construction will resume this week, DIA officials announced Tuesday, following a pricey divorce with the airport's private contractor that pushed the makeover's completion to the end of 2024.
The renovation will move the security checkpoints to the sixth floor, install new screening tech, and consolidate check-in counters among other changes meant to woo passengers and make them more comfortable.
Hensel Phelps took over the project from Great Hall Partners, led by Spanish company Ferrovial. The city-owned airport will pay the company up to $195 million for the first phase. The Great Hall renovation is not fully designed, and who will handle later phases is still up in the air.
By the end of 2021, passengers can expect to see demolition and wider balconies for future security checkpoints completed on the sixth floor, new airline ticket counters and four new bathrooms, a DIA spokesperson said.
But first, the airport will get noisier and possibly more congested.
Crews will work overnight to start things off with "minor traffic impacts" possible at the passenger pick-up doors on the fourth floor between 1 and 7 a.m., DIA officials said in a statement. Construction walls will be higher, but they'll include windows for people to watch the progress.
Once it resumes, demolition will get loud between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. and from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Want to relive the memories of the Great Hell, er, Great Hall saga? Here's a tipsheet and a periodically updated article about what they are doing at DIA and how long it's gonna take.
