Chicago O'Hare is a huge construction site — here's what's going up

Any traveler who has landed at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport (ORD) recently is aware that the airport is a massive construction site.Work is well underway on the airport's delayed $12.5 billion "ORDNext" redevelopment program that includes a new Global Terminal and concourse on the site of Terminal 2, as well as two new linear satellite concourses southwest of United Airlines' Terminal 1 and a new underground train and walkway to connect it all. When complete, it will expand ORD's terminal area to around 220 gates (from 185 gates in 2018).ORD will be nearly unrecognizable.The ORDNext expansion of Chicago's O'Hare airport; new construction is in white. CHICAGO DEPARTMENT OF AVIATIONORDNext is more than just new gates and terminals. The city views the project as critical to the competitiveness of the airport (which was formerly the world's busiest) at a time when both of its hub carriers, American Airlines and United Airlines, are eager to grow.Growth, however, is limited by the Federal Aviation Administration's order capping flights through at least October 2027 to reduce congestion. That means airlines need to fly larger planes with more seats to grow.Schedule data from av...