Denver's New World Airport and Its Baggage
A new world airport and its baggage
Denver International Airport was a massive public works project that opened in 1995 without a functional automated baggage system. The airport's design, shaped by United Airlines' demands for 35-minute turnarounds, included an underground network of tunnels and a $84 million transit system. The baggage handling system, intended to move bags in under ten minutes, became a notorious failure, costing millions and delaying the airport's opening. This article explores the history and the baggage that came with it.
Travelers were promised that their bags would arrive at the claim before they did. As soon as these words were said it was known that achieving them would require an automated baggage handling system of unprecedented scale.
- jebarker
> This year, the airport announced plans to remove the last of the Telecar equipment from the connecting tunnel and refit the space it used to occupy as a pedestrian walkway. The $300-700 million project is scheduled to start early next year
Must be a fancy pedestrian walkway! Also amazing that somehow they can’t estimate the cost to within less than a $400 million difference
- z3ugma
I appreciate both the level of detail and the storytelling. This looks to have been a lot of work and care.
- Animats
Today, such systems just work.[1] 25mph carts are now normal.
This is more of a construction management problem. Two vendors went bankrupt and coordination between the tunnel construction and baggage system was terrible.
I've seen pictures of that project showing where concrete footings for conveyors didn't line up across a contractor boundary. This was not primarily a software problem.