Three Years at Sea: Kansai Airport Settles Down

Kansai International Airport opened in September 1994 as the world's first full-scale international airport built offshore on reclaimed land. The passenger terminal building, which is the main facility, is 1700 m long with a total floor area of approximately 300 000 m². The terminal features a vast wing-like roof curving over the entire length of the building and creating long-span open spaces for the arrival and departure concourses. Since the site is reclaimed land, due care was taken in the structural design of the terminal to cope with ongoing ground settlement. This paper outlines the soil conditions at the manmade island and the structural scheme of the terminal, particularly the roof, and then focuses on the structural design measures undertaken against differential settlement.