About 17 months after the ceremonial groundbreaking for Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport, the $344 million project has a completed shell.
Construction on the six-gate, three-level structure began in July 2024. The 186,733-square-foot project is at 2400 Yankee Clipper Drive in North Jacksonville.
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority and construction manager Balfour Beatty Construction LLC of Orlando celebrated the milestone with a topping-out ceremony Oct. 24.
“We started removing about 15,000 cubic yards of pavement, put over 600 piles in the ground,” said David Campbell, Balfour Beatty Jacksonville director. “We’ve poured over 2,500 cubic yards of concrete and installed over 4,500 pieces of steel.
The final beam is lifted at the topping-out ceremony for the new Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport. It is customary to install the final beam with a pine tree for luck, a Scandinavian tradition.
Photo by J. Brooks Terry
“That’s a great accomplishment on a project this complex. It takes a great team of architects and engineers. It takes a workforce that’s spent over 300,000 hours out here already, and that’s amazing.”
Gainesville-based Jacobs Engineering is the lead design engineer, and Jacksonville-based RS&H Inc. is the architectural subcontractor.
Funding sources for the project include a mixture of Florida Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration grants and JAA money.
About 17 months after the ceremonial groundbreaking for Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport, the $344 million project has a completed shell.
Photo by J. Brooks Terry
Campbell said the project is on budget and on track to arrive by December 2026.
JAA Chief Executive Officer Mark VanLoh said Concourse B is long overdue following delays associated with the recession and the pandemic.
“But it’s kind of a big deal for us. It’s a $300 million investment in Jacksonville. This gives us more gates, more flights and our staff will be filling this concourse with the restaurants that you have been bugging us about for all these years to put in Jacksonville airport. They’re coming,” he said.
A $100 million garage that will add 2,000 spaces also is on track to be completed by June.
VanLoh declined to discuss restaurant details but said they will be a local and national mix.
He said American Airlines, which announced plans to add more routes and flights to Mexico and the Caribbean in July, is taking all six concourse gates.
“Put two and two together. We think that’s big news for American, which is our No. 1 carrier now in Jacksonville. I would love to see the Caribbean and Mexico immediately,” he said.
VanLoh said that while he’d like to see more domestic flights to such cities as Seattle and San Francisco, international travel is a JAA priority.
“That’s really been our focus recently,” he said, adding that Air Canada, which resumed nonstop service to Toronto from Jacksonville in May after a five-year hiatus, will return in the spring. Its last flight this season is Oct. 25.
A $100 million garage that will add 2,000 spaces also is on track to be completed by June, he said.
Jacksonville Airport Authority Chief Executive Officer Mark VanLoh said American Airlines will lease six gates at Concourse B, making flights to the Caribbean and Mexico a possibility.
Photo by J. Brooks Terry
The new Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport will have six gates.
An interior rendering of Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport.
A rendering of the new Concourse B at Jacksonville International Airport.