By Nick Pasion – Reporter, Puget Sound Business Journal
Clark Construction and the Port of Seattle have reached settlements to resolve yearslong legal battles stemming from the construction of the Seattle-Tacoma Airport’s International Arrivals Facility.
The parties jointly filed a settlement agreement in King County Superior Court at the end of December, capping off a pair of dueling lawsuits between the port and Clark over the handling of a $968 million Sea-Tac renovation.
Clark, the primary contractor, will pay the port $28 million, while the port, which controls the airport, will pay Clark $13.79 million, according to public port memos.
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The crux of the lawsuits, filed in late 2022 and early 2023, focused on the construction of the port’s International Arrivals Terminal. Initially set to be completed by 2018 for $344 million, the project dragged through the pandemic and was completed in 2022.
The gates were also supposed to fit 20 widebody planes simultaneously. The port charges airlines double to use those larger planes when compared with narrowbody aircraft, according to a draft operating agreement.
But upon its completion, the port told Clark in a letter that it could only hold 16 widebody planes, a 20% shortfall that it said would severely limit the revenue and leave Sea-Tac with “a capacity problem that this project was originally intended to solve.”
The parties have until Feb. 9 to pay the settlement amount, court records show.
A spokesperson for the Bethesda, Maryland-based Clark declined to comment. Port spokeswoman Kassie McKnight-Xi said the agency is working on fixes that will allow larger aircraft to use the gates “as originally intended,” but declined to comment on what those changes entailed.
The port had previously proposed fixes that included relocating passenger entryways, escalators and elevators that would cost the airport tens of millions of dollars, according to a letter from the port obtained through a public records request by the Seattle Times and seen by the Business Journal. It’s not clear how many of those changes, if any, are being implemented.
“The Port, independent of the settlement, has also identified and is actively working on fixes to the previous gate fit issues identified,” McKnight-Xi said.
In its lawsuit, the port asked for $100 million to recoup costs that it had allegedly lost. Clark, however, contended that the port still owed it $60 million for design changes during construction, a total that included $47 million for costs incurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ultimately, both settlements — $28 million to the port and $13.79 million to Clark — were approved by port commissioners in an executive session, which is closed to the public, and then passed through the consent agenda.
The trial was initially set to begin next month, with discovery ending in January. But in October, a judge agreed to delay the case, resolving Clark’s claims against the port and pushing the trial back to March 2026, court records show.
Elsewhere at Sea-Tac, the port is underway on $5 billion in renovations to its infrastructure, including the expansion of the C Concourse, improvements to the main terminal and optimization of the baggage screening and equipment operations.