The main terminal of the Beijing Daxing International Airport will be completed on June 30 and open to air traffic on Sept. 30, 2019, according to Li Jianhua, project manager of Beijing Urban Construction Group for the airport program on Friday.

Situated 46 kilometers south from the Tiananmen Square, the main terminal of Beijing Daxing International Airport, which looks like a golden phoenix, stretches out its wings under the sun.

In contrast with the new airport's phoenix motif, the dragon-inspired Beijing Capital International Airport has become the world's second busiest airport, hitting the 100 million mark of annual passengers in 2018. To address overflowing aviation traffic congestion, Beijing built the new Daxing airport as an international hub that connects to the world and a new engine for China's economy.

The new airport is expected to handle 45 million passengers by the end of this year and 72 million annually by 2025. With the main terminal, the supporting service building, the parking building, and transportation system covering about 1.43 million square meters, the terminal complex would become the world's largest single airport terminal.

Beijing's new airport topped a list of the seven wonders of the modern world near completion as assessed by the Guardian. It is the first terminal in the world that adopted a two-story design for departures and the area of its steel framed roof structure is about 180,000 square meters, which is the largest in the world.

Despite the huge size of the airport, the terminal's radial spoke-like structure helps to reduce distance between gates. The farthest distance between the terminal and a boarding gate is about 600 meters, taking about 8 minutes on foot, according to the constructors.

According to Li, each and every phase of the ongoing project was finished on time or ahead of schedule so far, and the construction methods have all been in line with international standards. With the help of self-developed smart building system, his crew has worked at a rate equivalent to putting up 25 18-story buildings a month, and overcame various challenges crucial to the airport construction project.

By June 2017, the terminal had its concrete and steel structure capped.

By 2018, a total of 108 systems, including 247,000 electromechanical devices and 1,800 kilometers of cables, had been installed in the main terminal.

As of Thursday this week, the construction project has roughly completed the interior decoration and installed mechanical and electrical equipment. Li's team of over 3,200 construction workers and engineers is working at full capacity to complete the construction project by the end of June.

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