PANYNJ Awards $1.184B Design-Build Contract to Tutor Perini/O&G for AirTrain Newark System

PANYNJ says it has now completed 80% of the procurement process needed to deliver a new modern, reliable automated people mover train system with this latest contract award in the agency’s multi-phase procurement process to replace the current outmoded AirTrain system at Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR).  

The multi-phase procurement process is separated into procurement phases for the building, manufacturing, delivery and installation of the system technology; early works; guideway and stations; a maintenance and control facility for the system equipment; pedestrian connections between new stations and existing airport facilities; and for the demolition of the existing AirTrain. In December 2023 after a rigorous review process, the Port Authority selected Doppelmayr, a market leader in cable-propelled transport systems, for the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the automated people mover system and its vehicles. In summer 2024, engineering firm Stantec was selected to design the new maintenance and control facility and the pedestrian connectors, and to decommission the existing AirTrain.  

Tutor Perini/O&G consists of Tutor Perini Corporation (TPC) and O&G Industries Inc. (O&G), which together will be the lead contractor for the project and will work as a joint venture with joint and several liabilities. The joint-venture firm has worked together on 11 large infrastructure projects nationwide, such as transportation projects for the Los Angeles Metro, the Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Los Angeles International Airport and the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Separately, TPC is one of the nation’s largest full service general contractors with a significant portfolio of transit projects and highway, bridge and tunnel projects, including history working on Port Authority projects such as the Jamaica terminal on AirTrain JFK and the World Trade Center campus. O&G is a privately owned company in Torrington, Conn., and is one of the Northeast’s leading providers of construction services and materials with experience on airport projects such as Bradley International Airport’s Terminal A and air traffic control tower in Connecticut, according to PANYNJ.

As with all PANYNJ capital projects, its contractors are mandated to create equitable economic opportunities. Tutor Perini/O&G has committed to making good-faith efforts to meet specific benchmarks around the hiring of minority-owned business enterprises, women-owned business enterprises, service-disabled veteran-owned business enterprises, and locally owned business enterprises, with those from the cities of Newark and Elizabeth prioritized. The firm is also required to develop a locally based workforce development program to hire program participants for future work on the new system’s design and construction. 

Of the remaining procurement phases that have yet to be completed, the agency expects to award smaller packages related to the construction of the new AirTrain’s maintenance and control facility and the pedestrian connectors, and to decommission the current system. Construction is expected to begin on the new AirTrain Newark system in 2025, with passenger service expected in 2030.  

The existing AirTrain Newark opened for service in 1996 and has become outdated and unable to accommodate growing air travel demand at the airport, where PANYNJ opened a new and much larger Terminal A in 2023 to replace the previous 50-year-old terminal.  

The agency recently announced details of its EWR Vision Plan, aimed at accommodating increasing demand and evolving changes in the air travel industry, as well as enhancing the overall passenger experience. Under PANYNJ’s guidance and in line with the world-class standards set by the new award-winning Terminal A, the entire Newark Liberty will be reimagined with “modern terminals and infrastructure, a more intuitive roadway network, and a redesigned taxiway network to accommodate more aircraft and reduce delays.”

AirTrain Newark serves as the primary travel option for millions of Newark Liberty passengers to transfer between three airport terminals, parking and rental car facilities, and regional rail transit via the Newark Airport Rail Link station, which connects to NJ Transit and Amtrak rail service on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) line. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the AirTrain carried an average of 33,000 passengers per day, or approximately 12 million passengers per year. Year to date, AirTrain Newark served nearly 5.5 million passengers in 2024, with the vast majority using the system on-airport to transfer among airport facilities.  

To deliver the AirTrain Newark project, the Port Authority Board also voted to increase the project budget to $3.5 billion, adding $1.45 billion to the previously approved amount of $2.05 billion. The agency attributed the rise in cost to the following factors:  

• “Five-year delay due to COVID-19 pandemic pause and start from scratch re-procurement of all elements in the program.
• “Historic spike in inflation during the pause period.
• “Even higher inflation in the construction marketplace due to supply chain issues and instability in cost for materials.
• “Extra sharp risk premiums assigned to mega projects.”

According to PANYNJ, the agency’s contracting strategy of using a multi-phased procurement process avoided more than $1 billion in additional costs had the agency awarded the contract as a single procurement request to design, build, operate and maintain the entire AirTrain system. The agency reevaluated the estimated cost for the AirTrain project to “better reflect the realities of current market conditions, high levels of economy-wide inflation and their related impact on certain construction materials and labor, and the construction industry’s reluctance to take on mega infrastructure projects in the current economic climate.” The project’s initial costs had been made and authorized by the Board prior to the pandemic in October 2019.   

The updated budget will be offset by deferred spending from the PATH rail extension project, as well as other cost-saving measures, such as value engineering, reduced project scope and other deferred or reduced spending on other projects in the agency’s 2017-2026 Capital Plan.  

In addition to the AirTrain Newark replacement project, PANYNJ in 2023 announced plans to improve local community access for underserved communities in Newark and Elizabeth at the Newark Airport Rail Link station, which connects AirTrain Newark to the airport and also NJ Transit rail and Amtrak services on the NEC line. The EWR Station Access Project, PANYNJ says, was engineered to deliver many of the community benefits of a PATH rail extension to the AirTrain Newark Rail Link station faster and at a significantly reduced cost. With the EWR Station Access project capable of delivering the PATH rail extension’s goals for local community access to New York City and the airport, as well as the funding shortfall for the project, the PATH rail extension was deferred in 2023 to a future capital plan.