> Meaning that it would have been faster to tear the entire building down and rebuild it from scratch than it is taking to remedy the issues?

This sentence is never true.

It's not true in software it's even less so in construction.

The issues would have been there even if the construction was done perfectly, you always fix such massive infrastructure for their whole lifetime (it's not simply a building!)

This time they fucked up and the airport didn't pass the safety checks necessary to open it, but there is constant fixing and changing and upgrading and scaling in an airport facility.

Tearing down it and rebuilding it it's never an option and never a good idea, unless the structure is severely damaged or contaminated (e.g. asbestos)