Rock Solid: PIT’s New Terminal Gets Its ‘Legs’

Contractors begin drilling foundation; steel arrives at local fabricator

By Alyson Walls

Published December 6, 2021

Read Time: 3 mins

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Holiday travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport are likely to notice some interesting sights rising near the Airside Terminal: six large cranes, three drilling rigs, a host of heavy earth-moving equipment and a hive of workers in hard hats and bright yellow clothing.

Right outside the windows of concourses C and D, travelers have a bird’s eye view into the construction site of the airport of the future.

Just before Thanksgiving, contractors from Goettle, which specializes in building deep foundations, began drilling the first of 131 caissons, shafts about five feet in diameter and between 25 and 95 feet deep reinforced with rebar cages and concrete. Those shafts will form the deep foundational supports for a new 700,000-square-foot terminal.

Goettle is one of many subcontractors under prime construction contractor Mascaro, which is responsible for more than $163 million in foundations, slab-on-grade, structural steel and c