Airside D at Tampa International: 16 Gates and 6,200 Tons of Steel on an Old Footprint

Tampa International tore down its original Airside D in 2007 and left the site empty for seventeen years. Steel is now going up on it.

Hensel Phelps leads the design-build team on a roughly $1.5 billion, 600,000-square-foot airside with 16 gates, two levels, a mezzanine and two airline lounges. HNTB is lead architect and engineer in association with Gensler. Steel erection started in May 2026 and the frame runs to more than 7,300 members, about 6,200 tons, held together by roughly 96,000 bolts. GMF Steel Group of Lakeland is fabricating it.

Project Scope

The build includes a new station on the airport’s automated people mover and the guideway that reaches it, with The Middlesex Corporation on the shuttle guideway bridge superstructure. A separate $91 million enabling contract was awarded in December 2024 covering apron work, fueling and passenger boarding bridges. Design began in August 2023 and the project broke ground on December 18, 2024.

Construction is scheduled to finish in late 2028, with the airport targeting public opening in 2029. Earlier trade coverage cited a 2028 opening; the airport’s own May 2026 release moved it.

Why It Matters

This is TPA’s first new airside in nearly two decades, and it lands in a period when almost every large U.S. hub is bidding terminal work at once. Steel packages of this size are the pinch point, which is why the 6,200-ton fabrication contract sitting with a Florida fabricator rather than an out-of-state mill is worth noting.

Sixteen gates also resets Tampa’s capacity math. The airport has been running its existing airsides near their practical limit at peak, and Airside D is the only structural answer available on the site.

Project Team & Details