Salt Lake Airport

Harper’s $19.6 million contract was roughly one-third of approximately $60 million spread out over eight separate contracts since initial landside construction began at the airport in 2001.

Bob Bailey, project engineer for the Salt Lake Department of Airports said Rulon Harper personally oversaw the tail end of the project to make sure the main parking lot was open for the holidays.

The project included an entirely new roadway system, parking lots, bridges, tunnel, parking exit plaza, and utility infrastructure. This is all part of the Salt Lake City Dept. of Airport’s master plan for new terminals, concourses and parking structures, which will come at a later date.

The new Park and Wait facility has received considerable attention from other airports for its layout.

The public can drive into the lot and wait for the variable message boards to indicate the schedule of incoming flights and notify them when passengers should be curb side for pick up.

Creating new parking lots has been a mainstay of this project, which included the sizeable demolition of old ones, in addition to building new lots. Harper also had to tear out two overpass bridges with 160 ft. long girders and rework a large segment of the site’s storm drain system. The company also finished up a new 140ft. bridge.

Tearing out old parking lot sections required tearing out asphalt, curb and gutter, light pole bases, and all utilities.

“The purpose behind the project was to make a contiguous parking lot so the public can park in one large lot,” said Bailey. “We have over 10,000 parking stalls with another 2,000 available for overflow. With it is our complete new inbound and outbound roadway system. It’s been a success.”