Emergency meeting at McGhee Tyson Airport leads to $8.5M increase for new parking garage
ALCOA, Tenn. (WVLT) - For the past 17 months, McGhee Tyson Airport has been buzzing with the construction of a brand new parking garage.
The Board of McGhee Tyson Airport called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss a proposed budget increase for the airport’s new parking garage. The change order would increase the guaranteed maximum price (GMP) by over $8.5 million to address future issues stemming from the scale of the project.
“East Tennessee construction often has challenges,” American Associates of Airport Executives Second Vice Chair Patrick Wilson said. “As we’ve gotten further into that foundation work, our design team and construction team have brought forward a recommendation that will be a different approach to those foundations in a way that may help us get through the project quicker and at the least amount of cost.”
The construction has been delayed for five months due to ground problems contractors ran into while trying to drill the foundation.
“We have experienced a little bit of a delay,” said Vincent Rodriguez, Senior Project Manager with Gresham Smith. “We started the project at the end of 2024, and we’ve been progressing through roadway and utilities. With the revised schedule, we are looking to complete the foundation in the first quarter of 2026.”
McGhee Tyson parking garage facing more delays
The ground at the construction site was too difficult to drill into, so the foundation and support columns would be at risk of collapsing. Also proposed in the change order was a new foundation system that would be safer and more cost effective.
“Continuing to use the originally designed drilled pure foundation systems would result in a higher cost impact to the project compared to the proposed hybrid foundation system,” said Vice President of Planning & Development Bryan White.
The proposal passed unanimously, and the garage is scheduled to be complete by July of 2027 and is projected to cost $197 million in total.
