The William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) team and Houston Airport System (HAS) partners are making HOU a safer place to work with the creation of a designated pathway. 

“This project originated when numerous Custodial Services employees asked that a designated path be made on the ramp, preferably under the connector breezeway, to help them transition from their store rooms in the tug tunnel to the central concourse,” HOU and Ellington Airport (EFD) Safety Management System (SMS) Staff Analyst Brian Boyd said. “The ramp area had become increasingly busy with traffic.” 

This is when Boyd embarked on a collaborative safety project with HAS, Southwest Airlines and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) stakeholders to create safe and designated walkways through the HOU Airport Operations Area (AOA) tug tunnels. 

“Without a designated pathway, the tugs didn’t understand where people were crossing,” Operations Division Manager for HOU Projects Michael Powers said. “In this case, a designated and unabated pathway was created for employees to cross without any obstacles.” 

After stakeholder meetings, a final proposed pathway was presented and approved by HAS’ Chief Terminal Management Officer Liliana Rambo and entered into the Tenant Improvement Program (TIP) process with HAS’ Infrastructure Building Standards Group (BSG). After all approvals were granted, the HAS Infrastructure Maintenance paint teams laid out and painted the pathways.  

The TIP is setup to vet airport project proposals and is run by the HAS Infrastructure BSG TIP team. The BSG section has two business units, permitting and TIP. The permitting group focuses on the codes, standards and laws, while the TIP team coordinates plan approval with stakeholders.  

“Brian understood the importance of this project,” HAS TIP Coordinator Clint Robinson said. “Coordination was very important to understand the scope of work. It was a big deal to be together during COVID-19 while being socially distant. You have to do a good job in understanding the project.” 

Approved TXDOT walkway signs were also installed to help enhance safety so that vehicle operators are more aware when pedestrians are afoot. 

Boyd, Powers and Robinson all credit teamwork to the success of the project. 

“Overall, this project was a large team effort with a lot of collaborative work to ensure that what we installed met the regulatory concerns, but also addressed the original safety concerns raised by the employees,” Boyd said. “Without the help of Terminal Project Management, Mike Powers, and the Infrastructure BSG members, Lorna Clark, Clint Robinson and David Leslie, as well as the work put in by the Maintenance team, led by Raj Ramoutar, this project would not have successfully been completed.”