Airports Eye Blast Protection Systems

A row of cement bollards blocking the main entrance to Glasgow’s international airport terminal prevented an explosives-packed vehicle from crashing into the building with disastrous consequences in June. Other airports have erected bollards or reinforced-concrete blast walls for the same reason. Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, in Nairobi, Kenya, is taking the strategy a step further

As part of $145 million in renovations, designed by a consortium led by Queen’s Quay Architects International, the airport is isolating all vehicular traffic from its three terminals. Blast barriers and shrapnel protectors, disguised as planters, will guide cars toward a remote facility where passengers will disembark and undergo security checks. “It’s probably going to be the only airport in the world that doesn’t allow cars to stop in front of the terminal,” says Peter Pascaris, a principal at Queen’s Quay.

Nairobi might seem an odd place for such a high level of protection, but recent terrorist incidents elsewhere in the world have overshadowed Kenya’s deadly past. More than 200 people died during bombings at the U.S. Embassy in 1998, and 13 people died in a hotel bombing four years later. “Nairobi is in a higher threat environment, and the focal point from day one was to make sure the terminal is as safe as possible, where protection is taken most seriously,” says Gordon Hamilton, managing director of Jacobs Consultancy Canada, an international airport consultant that is contributing to the Jomo Kenyata project.

While Nairobi is the first airport to keep cars completely away from its terminals, other airports worldwide are looking at ways to increase blast protection. In the United States, the Ted C. Connell Terminal Building, at Gray Army Airfield in Killeen, Texas, was the first to install a blast wall, packed with roughly 1,000 tons of structural steel and 9,500 cubic yards of concrete, in front of its entrances in response to security concerns after September 11, 2001. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, as well as the Dane County Regional Airport, in Madison, Wisconsin, are following suit.

While these projects primarily pose security and engineering challenges, they do require architectural services as well. In Nairobi, for instance, the blast walls will be etched with African scenes. “There will be opportunities to improve security without creating the impression of building fortresses,” Hamilton says.