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MARCH 2016 AviationPros.com 17 INTERNATIONAL sortium integrated by Aéroports de Paris, VINCI Airports and Astaldi Concessioni; the consortium is building a 175,000 square meter new terminal. The new building, a USD 900 million investment, will increase the airport's capacity to 30 million passen- gers in 2020, a signifcant increase com- pared to the 17 million passengers travelling through Santiago airport in 2015; the traffc fgure corresponds to a 7.2 percent increase on 2014, a growth rate which goes in line with Nuevo Pudahuel's projections. Xavier Lortat-Jacob is the Chief Technical Offcer (CTO) of Nuevo Pudahuel; he says that the consortium is currently focussed on the design of Santiago airport's new terminal and the infrastructure is being design taking into account resilience to future traffc evolution but also operational constraints and safety requirements. "The purpose is to promote the operational safety policy that is driving our company and our parent companies in all of their worldwide airport projects. We recognise through our experience that risks are concentrated in the movement and parking area where ground handlers are working in close proximity around the aircraft. In order to reduce and avoid ground damage as far as possible we are of course intervening on airport infrastruc- ture design but also on airport operations," Lortat-Jacob says. Avoiding mix aircraft and GSE traffc As part of the new airport development projects in South America efforts are being committed to avoid a mixed aircraft and GSE traffc on the apron, and specifcally with the realisation of lanes for ground support vehicles that do not cross taxiways, possibly built underneath them. "Within existing physical constraints airport expansions and certainly new terminal developments are being built to international standards," Stewart says. "Dedicated circulation lanes are integrated into the apron design and separate internal airside road networks are being included in the design of new airfeld systems." According to Lortat-Jacob the design currently under development of Santiago's airport expansion is providing a dedicated service road network, out of the taxi lane/ taxiway clearance and the possibility to service the aircraft stands both from the front and from the rear. "This redundancy allows avoiding bottlenecks on the service road network and ensures smooth opera- tions in the aircraft parking area. The service road network circles the passenger terminal area, providing for a two-way fow of vehi- cles without having to cross in the process AviationPros.com/11174155