Aircraft Manufacturing Center at Brookley Aeroplex

In 2012, Airbus announced plans to develop its first U.S.-based aircraft manufacturing center – a $600-million project. The facilities, located on 116 acres at the Brookley Aeroplex industrial airport on Mobile Bay in Mobile, Alabama, produce as many as fifty A320 family aircraft annually.

The Austin Company provided design, engineering and construction administration for the most critical components of the overall project – the Final Assembly Line (259,600 SF), Logistics Building (70,500 SF) and Service Building (95,500 SF) facilities at the new manufacturing center.

In response to the project’s aggressive schedule, expedited design of the pilings and pile caps allowed the construction work to begin just six weeks after award of the design. Austin completed all design and engineering work for the complete construction documents in just five months following the contract award.

Special design considerations were necessary for these buildings due to the location and local soil and weather conditions, involving flood protection, local heavy rain, corrosive protection, deep foundations and influence of hurricanes, including gale-force winds up to 135 MPH. The buildings were designed to achieve and were awarded LEED Silver Certification.

This is Airbus’ first assembly facility in the United States. The buildings are used to assemble the latest and most fuel-efficient, A319/A320/A321 family of aircraft, at a rate of four a month.