spaces at Gateway Transit Center and along Airport Way. Bechtel began construction in June 1999 on a segment next to I-205 near the Columbia Slough. Bridgework over the freeway commenced the following December. To minimize lane closures, workers used a cast-in-place concrete pouring method to extend the bridges' spans in increments. Work progressed quickly along the freeway segment due to the existing I-205 busway alignment, which included a tunnel from Gateway Transit Center to the freeway median. Bechtel contracted track installation to Stacy and Witbeck. To meet the project's deadline, workers placed of rail per day; tracks from Gateway Transit Center to the bridge over southbound I-205 were laid by July 2000. Hoffman Construction built the $8.4 million Portland International Airport station, and local architecture firm Zimmer Gunsul Frasca (ZGF) designed the station's glass-roofed shelter to complement the airport terminal's drop-off canopy, which ZGF also designed. Bechtel began the end-to-end testing of the power, trains, and signals in March 2001. TriMet took over the project that July to continue system testing and verify scheduling. Opening and extension to Beaverton In 2000, TriMet named the new MAX service to the airport the "Red Line" to differentiate it from the established service between Hillsboro and Gresham, which it renamed the "Blue Line". The Airport MAX extension opened on September 10, 2001. Celebrations scheduled for September 15–16 were canceled in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, with the airport itself closed for three days due to a nationwide ground stop. Upon opening, the Red Line operated from the airport to the Library and Galleria stations in downtown Portland, where its trains turned around at the 11th Avenue loop tracks. It replaced bus route 12–Sandy Boulevard as TriMet's only service to and from the airport. C-Tran moved its bus service from Vancouver, Washington from its connection at Gateway Transit Center to Parkrose/Sumner Transit Center. Although tested during trial runs, TriMet opted to omit luggage racks from Red Line trains to maximize rider capacity. By November 2001, ridership averaged 2,300 riders and peaked at 3,800 riders a day before Thanksgiving holiday weekend. At that point, service had been using single light rail cars, but the influx of riders prompted TriMet to temporarily deploy two-car consists, which it had not planned to do until 2006. On September 1, 2003, TriMet extended Red Line service farther west using the existing Westside MAX tracks to Beaverton Transit