[Middle Term Project]

Critical Facility Site Analysis of

DFW Airport
JungSoo Lee
Contents

• Introduction • Hydrology
• General Information • Vegetation
• History • Microclimate
• Role of DFW airport • Views
• Elements of DFW airport • On-site energy potential
• Terminals
• Transportation
• Terminal A to E
• Runways • Summary in chart
• Site selection criteria analysis • Benefits and risks
• Location • Discussion
• Land use and neighbors
• Geology and Soil
• Topography
General information / History / Roles of DFW airport / Elements of DFW airport /
Terminals / Runways
General information
• DFW international Airport:
• Super hub which transport passenger and cargos through
domestic and international flights
• The largest hub for American Airlines, which is also the
largest airline in the world
• Fourth busiest airport in the world by aircraft movement
in 18’;
• Fifteenth busiest airport by passenger traffic
• Ninth busiest international gateway in the US
• Size:
• 17,207 acres (=27 square miles) which is larger than the
island of Manhattan
• Second largest airport by land area in the world
• Service:
• 244 destinations including 62 international and 182
domestic destinations within the US
• avg. 1817 daily flights in 18’
• 69 million customers every year
 History
a b • Dallas and Fort Worth opened their own airports, Love
Field (1917) and Meacham Field (1925).
• Opening ceremony on Sep, 1973 with the first landing of a
Concorde supersonic Concorde in the US (Figure a, b)
• “The initiative for the Con corde's first trip to North America
came some months ago from officials of the new Dallas‐Fort
Worth Regional Air port. It is about the size of Manhattan,
or twice the size Of any jetport built before it. Sprawled
across the prairie half‐way, between Dallas and Fort Worth,
the facility will, it is hoped, serve as a model for how to
make airport life easier for today's often confused, frenetic,
and baggage‐burdened, passengers,” The New York Times
Sep 21, 1973
• Dallas Fort Worth commercially opened Jan 13, 1974.
 Roles of DFW airport
• Supporting growing population (Figure a, b) and economic base (Figure c, DFW
economic growth rate is much faster than L.A. since 2005)
• Geographic location in central U.S. and operational advantages of connecting
activity
• Significant non-airline activities, such as hotels and restaurants
• Strong management team dealing with the complexities of running a major U.S.
airport
• Economic impact of DFW airport: more than $37 billion to the North Texas
region each year, (Fort Worth Business Press, Jan 17, 2019)

a b c

US Census Bureau
 Elements of DFW airport
a • Terminals: 5 terminals, A to E (Figure a)
b
• Departure
• Check-in facilities
• Security and clearance gate
• Shopping centers/restaurants/waiting areas/gates
• Arrival
• Baggage claim facilities
• Customs
• Bus/Taxi/Train/Super shuttle
• Medical emergency
c d • Banking business
• Police
• Parking lots; each terminal (Figure a)
• Runways (Figure b)
• Weather system (Figure c)
• Control tower (Figure d) in located at the south end of the
airport
• Hotels at terminal C (small Hyatt) and D (big Hyatt)
Terminals
• Terminals:
• Terminal A:
• fully occupied by American Airlines for domestic flights
and some international flight departures
• Terminal B:
• Other airlines other than American and Delta
• Terminal C:
• Domestic flight only
• Hyatt Regency Hotel(red circle) is directly adjacent to this
terminal.
• Terminal D:
• International terminal
• Handling 32,000 passengers daily
• Grand Hyatt hotel(red circle) is directly connected.
• Terminal E:
• Most of US based carriers
• Each terminal has enough parking space; $3/2hr.
Runways
• Runway must be highly well mechanically engineered to
maintain its safety.
• Components: Asphalt / Concrete
• Thickness: 5’ 6’’
• Enhanced LED lighting
• Renovation
• 17C/35C is renovated to upgrade the runway; Feb 25,
2019 article
• It can stand 190 degrees Fahrenheit without melting.
Location / Land use and neighbors / Geology and Soil / Topography / Hydrology /
Vegetation / Microclimate / Views / On-site energy potential / Transportation
Location
• Location:
• North TX
• halfway between the major cities of Dallas and Fort Worth
• Portions of Dallas and Tarrant Counties
• Portions of the four cities of Irving, Euless, Grapevine and
Coppell
• Good
• Geographic location in the US; Central US
• Advantages in connecting the west to the east across
the US
• Transition hub for the long flights
• Locating half between Dallas and Fort Worth
• Efficiently serving large metropolitan
• Bad
• A little far from the cities
• ~20 miles to Dallas or Fort Worth

Tarrant County Dallas County

Land use and neighbors
• Most of the area around the airport is resident
area.
• West (Tarrant County)
Coppell • Grapevine
• Colleyville
Valley Ranch • North
Grapevine
• Coppell
Farmers Branch • East (Dallas County)
• Valley Ranch
Las Colinas • Las Colinas
• Farmers Branch
Colleyville • South
• Euless, Irving
• Good
Euless • A lot of needs for the huge population
around the airport
Irving • Bad
• Many people could be affected by the
big noise from the residents.
 Geology and soil
• Rock map • Geology/Rock map
a • Same unit for the DFW underground family (Figure a)
• Hard limestone, shale, sandstone
• Thickness 200 ~300 ft
• Hard limestone
• One of the most strongest rock
• Young’s modulus: ~70 GPa
• Very stable to the 2D compression
• E.g.) Wood 10 GPa, Steel 200 GPa
• Bulk modulus: ~65 GPa
• Very stable to the 3D compression
• E.g.) Sandstone: 0.7 GPa, Shale 10 Gpa
https://txpub.usgs.gov/txgeology/ • Good
• The airport area is of the same geological district of Eagle
Ford Shale, which has the strong limestone in the ground.
• Strong enough to stand huge load of the airplane and the
impact of the landing
• Bad
• Too rigid ground can cause extra work to build
• Geology map underground structure.
 Topography
• Topographic map
• The altitude of DFW airport is flat in most area.
• The height of the area is in the range of 550 to 600
ft.
• Since the airplanes land on the runways, they
should be very flat.

• Good
• The area is flat and sturdy, which is good
condition for the airplanes to land safely
without damaging the ground.
• Bad
• The elevation of the region is lower than the
west, which can cause flood; not yet
happened.
 Hydrology
• River map • Elevation map (topography) • The airport is surrounded by Creeks and Rivers
a b (Figure a).
• Big Bear creek on the west side
• Elm Fork Trinity river on the east side
• West Fork Trinity river on the south side
• These rivers come together to the Trinity
river.
• The water flows from the northwest to the
southeast. (Figure b)
• The west is higher than the east.
West Fork Trinity river • The north is higher than the south.
http://www.floodmap.net/Elevation/Count • Good
ryElevationMap/?ct=US
c • Enough water around the DFW airport for
the workers and customers.
• Bad
• Dry weather can cause air pollution due to
the dusts from the airplanes. (Figure c)
 Vegetation
a • DFW airport is located between region 4 and 5 (Figure a).
• Region 4 (Blackland Prairies)
• Timber along the steams; Oaks, pecan, elm, bois d’arc, and mesquite trees,
lotebush
• Originally it was heavily grazed pastures
• Region 5 (Cross Timbers and Prairies)
• Prairie grasses are big bluestem, little bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass,
Canada wildye, sideoats grama
• On the timber soils, big bluestem, little bluestem, hooded windmillgrass, sand
lovegrass, and so on.
• Both regions are mostly grasses and timbers.
• The timbers are not densely located but they are residing harmoniously with other
grasses depending on the type of soils.
• Good
b • Since there are no heavy forest, it would be easier to construct buildings.
• The large prairie helps pilots to land safely on the ground without disturbance.
• Bad
• Less can cause the region drier than others due to the lower water preservation
underground (Figure b).
https://www.weather.gov/fwd/drought
 Microclimate

Winter (December) Spring (March)

• Sun stays longer during the spring
to fall than the winter time.
• Snowfall is much lower than
other regions in the US.
• Smaller precipitation days
• Much higher average temperature
• Good
Summer (June) Fall (Sep) • Much small amount of
snowfall causes much lower
payments for the runway
https://www.bestplaces.net/climate/county/texas/dallas management.
• Bad
• Higher average temperature
can damage/melt the runway
asphalt.
Natural disaster
a • DFW area is safe from floods and earthquakes.
• Average rainfall is similar or lower than the overall rainfall in
the US.
• Geologically stable area
• However, it is right in the center of the tornado path (Figure a, b).
• Good
• Safe from the flood and earthquakes
• Bad
b • DFW airport/airplanes could be damaged by possible tornadoes
in the future.

www.spc.noaa.gov
 View
• Large view; zoomed out • Small view; zoomed in
a b

High
High
flat

Low
50 mi 15 mi Low
http://en-us.topographic-map.com/places/Fort-Worth-678608/

• In the large view, DFW airport is in between high (west) and low elevation(east) (Figure a).
• In the small view, DFW airport is flat as we have checked in the topology part and the west side is higher than the
east side (Figure b).
• Good:
• Personal preference works here; it will be good if the person likes to watch airplane.
• Bad:
• Normally, it will be annoying to watch airplanes too often everyday.
 On-site energy supply/potential
• There are many petroleum terminals (red circular
a b marks , Figure a).
• There are power plants around the zone.
• Three biomass power plants 10 miles away
(green circular marks, Figure a)
• One petroleum power plant 3 miles away
(yellow circular mark , Figure a)
• One natural gas plant ~15 miles away (blue
circular mark , Figure a)
c • Good
• Near energy plant could be used for the power
supply in emergency.
• Bad
• Biomass power plant can cause bad smell
around the area.
• There is a potential to build regenerative power plant
such as wind/solar power plants.
• There is already a lot of wind power plants in
the north Texas (Figure b).
• There is a lot of potential for the solar power
plant in DFW area (Figure c).
Transportation
• Car access route (Figure a)
a
• Highway 121 is the main road across the airport
• Route 1 (The north entrance): highway 114, I-635
• Route 2 (The south entrance): highway 183
• Bus service(DART):
1
• Downtown Irving/Heritage crossing station
• Southwestern Medical District/Parkland Station
2 • Train:
• DART; Terminal A and Orange line to Dallas/Las Colinas
• TEXRail; Terminal B and T&P station in Fort Worth
b • TRE goes near the Airport (Figure b)
• Rental car facility is located at the south end of the airport; housing ten rental
companies.
• Good
• Many transportation methods to access the airport
• Many parking garages
• Well designed highways help reduces traffic jam around the airport.
• Bad
• Only two access points (North and South) are available, which could
cause the bottleneck effect.
Benefits and risks for the site decision
Good (benefits) Bad (risks)
Location • Central US location works as a connecting hub of the west to • A little far (~20 miles) from each cities
the east of the US.
• The location covers the huge DFW metropolitan.

Land use and neighbors • Huge population of DFW metropolitan has a good access to the • Many residents around the airport suffers from the 24 hr
airport. airplane noise.

Geology and soil • Strong enough to stand a huge load of the airplane and the • Too rigid to build underground structures
impact of the landings

Topography • DFW airport zone is flat and sturdy enough for thousands of • The elevation of DFW zone is lower than the west which may
airplanes landing everyday. cause flood.

Hydrology • Enough waters for the workers and customers • Dry weather can cause air pollution due to the dusts from
airplanes.

Vegetation • Less effort to clear the land before construction • Less vegetation could cause drought due to the lower
• Large prairie is good for pilots’ view to land safely. underground water.

Microclimate • Small amount of snowfall is good for less effort for the runway • Higher temperature can melt asphalt of the runway
management

Natural disaster • Lower chance for flood, earthquakes • Very high chance for tornadoes

View • Very personal; good for plane lovers • Mostly annoying for the airplanes 24 hr

On-site energy • Many energy plants around could be used for the emergency. • Biomass power plant can cause bad smell.
• High potential for wind and solar power plant

Transportation • Many transportations to access the airport • Only two access points are available, which can cause a
• Many parking spaces bottleneck effect.
• Well designed highways reduces traffic.
Discussion

• Based on the analysis, DFW airport works a significant role in the

metropolitan area and affects enormously on its economic and cultural
status over the world.
• Growing population of DFW area will accelerate the needs for the air
travelling as an access hub for the west and the east.
• As long as the management team cares well for the natural or man-
made disasters, it will grow bigger and bigger as times goes with the
exploding economy of the metropolitan.