Eppley Airfield Terminal Modernization (Build OMA), Omaha

The Eppley Airfield terminal modernization in Omaha is 60 percent complete, according to the Omaha Airport Authority, and some of it is running early. Four new gates tied to the existing south concourse will open ahead of their planned February date. For a $950 million rebuild of an airport that never closes, that isn’t the usual update.

Project Scope

The Build OMA program grows the terminal from about 375,000 square feet to about 646,000. The bigger change is how the building works. Today Eppley runs as two halves, each with its own checkpoint, and a passenger who walks into the wrong one has to leave and go around. The finished terminal puts everyone through one central checkpoint with nine TSA lanes, expandable to ten, and onto a single concourse.

The gate count goes to 22. Two will handle international flights through a new Customs and Border Protection arrivals hall. The program also adds an inline baggage system with about 1.25 miles of conveyor and six carousels, second-floor ticketing, a third skywalk from the garage and a central utility plant. The plant was the first piece built, and it has spare capacity for later growth.

Atlanta-based Holder Construction is the design-builder, according to the authority’s program site. Hawkins Construction had the separate $65 million terminal drive and canopy job. The authority’s public materials don’t name the design firm working under Holder.

Groundbreaking was Feb. 20, 2024. Crews took down most of the old central terminal building in mid-2025, the new canopy was finished in March 2026, and the first passenger boarding bridge went onto the new concourse that June. The central pavilion and many of the new gates are due in early 2027. The north concourse, international arrivals and a relocated curb follow, with completion in 2028.

Why It Matters

The budget history is the caution. In April 2022 the authority was describing a $600 million program that could wrap near the end of 2027. By January 2024 the approved figure was $950 million with a 2028 finish. The authority hasn’t published a breakdown of what changed.

Funding is the other thing to watch. The authority doesn’t levy taxes. The program runs on airport revenue, federal grants and bonds, so the debt rests on passenger traffic, which topped 5 million in 2023. Federal money still arrives in pieces: a $10 million Airport Infrastructure Grant for fiscal 2026 went to the final phase.

Plenty of mid-size airports share Eppley’s split-concourse problem. Gates and concessions on one side can’t serve passengers on the other. Omaha’s answer is to keep both halves working while a new middle goes in between them. That’s slower and costlier than a greenfield terminal, and it’s the only option when there’s one terminal and it can’t close.

Design-build suits that kind of phasing, since the builder carries the sequencing risk along with the drawings. At 60 percent, with gates opening early, the plan is holding. The central pavilion in early 2027 is the real test.

Project Team & Details