Terminal One Project Installed Wireless Safety System
The 88-acre New York City site transitioned to a dedicated notification network to improve emergency response.
Updated on Sept. 21, 2026 in Construction
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Leaders at the New Terminal One construction project at John F. Kennedy International Airport have implemented a new wireless mass-notification system. The system replaces air horns to provide site-wide communication for more than 3,000 workers.
Why it matters
The upgrade allows project managers to issue specific instructions during emergencies, a capability that legacy compressed-gas air horns lacked. This shift addresses the complexity of coordinating safety protocols across a massive, active infrastructure site.
The system now services an 88-acre project footprint and supports a workforce of more than 3,000 employees. The network utilizes 400-MHz frequencies to cover the 1.8-million square feet included in the terminal's first phase.
The players
New Terminal One
An expansive airport infrastructure project at John F. Kennedy International Airport currently under development.
Safety Systems Management
The specialized provider of the wireless notification infrastructure implemented at the job site.
The details
The project replaced manual air horns with a wireless notification system sourced from Safety Systems Management to enable directed site-wide evacuations. Engineers verified the system performance using dedicated 400-MHz frequencies rather than standard Wi-Fi to ensure reliability across the dense construction environment. Teams conducted field tests with strategically positioned units to confirm coverage and functionality prior to full implementation.
Timeline
September 21, 2026: The system implementation was detailed in reports.
Market Landscape
This move reflects an industry-wide transition toward digitized safety protocols on large-scale infrastructure projects. It follows a documented trend of shifting away from analog notification methods to prevent the coordination failures historically seen on complex, multi-acre construction sites.
Operators managing large, high-density work sites should evaluate whether current manual notification methods meet the scale of their operations. Consider replacing limited-range or imprecise alerts with dedicated-frequency systems to ensure clearer, site-wide emergency coordination.
The takeaway
Reliable, site-wide communication is a critical operational requirement for multi-acre projects that manual air horns cannot support. Review your site's emergency communication plan to ensure that instructions are specific and that coverage is verified through signal testing.
Further reading
For more information on large-scale development and safety requirements, see Construction.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Occupational Health & Safety.
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