Fresno City Council Approves $2.5 Million Addition to Airport Terminal Project After Requesting Bigger Arrivals Hall

The Fresno City Council approved a $2.5 million change order on December 5 for the terminal expansion project at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, adding 2,500 square feet to the arrivals hall and 140 days to the construction timeline.

The change order increases the contract with Q&D Construction by $2,506,060.55. According to the staff report from Aviation Director Henry Thompson, the Council itself requested the expansion when it first approved the Phase 2 construction contract in February 2023, asking that the arrivals hall be made larger “to properly accommodate the amount of passengers that would flow through the area.”

The airport’s project team and Q&D Construction agreed at that time the expansion could be done but told the Council they would need to return for approval to increase the contract amount by approximately $2.5 million. The change order passed on the consent calendar with no separate discussion recorded.

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The overall Phase 2 construction includes site excavation and grading, underground utilities, a roughly 96,000-square-foot terminal building, two passenger boarding bridges, and parking lot improvements. The staff report says the change order covers “the expanded area’s full scope to be constructed and time to complete the work,” though the sentence cuts off in the publicly posted document.

The Breakdown

• The City Council approved Change Order No. 1 to the Q&D Construction contract on December 5, 2024
• The change order adds $2,506,060.55 and 140 days to the project timeline
• It funds a 2,500-square-foot expansion of the terminal arrivals hall and upgrades to the arrivals plaza
• The Council requested this expansion when it first approved the Phase 2 contract in February 2023
• The change order was approved on the consent calendar, meaning no separate public discussion took place

What This Means for You

When the City Council approved the original terminal construction contract last year, council members asked for a bigger arrivals hall to handle passenger flow. That request came with a known price tag — roughly $2.5 million — and the understanding that the Council would need to vote again to authorize the spending. This week’s vote completes that process.

The expansion means a larger space for passengers arriving at the terminal, though the staff report does not specify how many more passengers the added square footage is meant to serve or what the original hall size was.

What to Watch

The Council approved this change order on the consent calendar — a procedural step that bundles multiple items together for a single vote with no individual discussion. That means there is no public record of council members explaining why the expansion was necessary or what passenger-capacity problem it solves.

The staff report says the change order will deliver “the expanded area’s full scope to be constructed,” but the sentence breaks off in the publicly posted document, leaving the full scope undefined. The original February 2023 contract amount is not stated in this approval item.

The material names Q&D Construction as the contractor receiving the additional $2,506,060.55, but it does not state the company’s total compensation under the original contract or how this expansion affects the overall project budget. A voter watching this project closely would want to know: Was the need for a larger arrivals hall foreseeable when the building was first designed? If the Council saw the need a year ago, why wasn’t it built into the original contract? And what happens to the timeline and cost if another request surfaces before construction is done?