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Air terminal upgrade eyed
Friday, December 09, 2005
CHARLES R. McCAULEY
News staff writer
Architects have prepared preliminary plans to nearly double the size of Birmingham International Airport's terminal and make it easier to use.

The project, which could cost $30 million and involve demolition of the original terminal, is meant to allow Alabama's busiest airport to meet demands through 2020.

KPS Group, the Birmingham architectural and engineering firm that oversaw the terminal's renovation in the 1990s, made a presentation Thursday to the Birmingham Airport Authority outlining three concepts to add more than 180,000 square feet by expanding the terminal onto the airport parking apron.

The 240,000-square-foot terminal, parts of which date to 1931, was last renovated a decade ago by the airport authority, which began managing it in 1986. The Transportation Security Administration says the airport needs 180,000 more square feet to meet security requirements imposed since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

KPS has made no formal recommendations on the modernizing plan because the three concepts all "have problems we haven't solved," said the firm's president, Gray Plosser Jr. KPS will continue to refine the plans to develop a final design and come up with a cost projection.

"There is a lot of work to be done before we do a design," he said.

Among changes Plosser said the authority wants are boarding gates for international travel, improving passengers' movement from the parking deck to the terminal, meeting federal security requirements for passenger screening and creating a corridor to connect all the gates on the boarding side of the security checkpoints.

In three days of brainstorming with airport staffers, Plosser said, design consultants came up with eight schemes and "collapsed those into three that represented what we thought were the most feasible."

These are the three concepts:

Concept 1: Concourses B and C would remain, while the original terminal would be torn down to make room for a new concourse, A, which would have gates for international flights.

Concept 2: Concourse C would remain and a Concourse A built. The current Concourse B would be eliminated and its space on the upper level converted to a corridor and the lower level to gates for boarding regional jets.

Concept 3: Concourse D would be built for regional jet operations. Passengers have to walk onto the parking apron to board regional jets because the airport does not have bridges to fit them. Airlines have increasingly used smaller jets for regional flights because they are cheaper to operate.

A common element among the three concepts is expanding the terminal from the curbside door to the airplane parking apron. The distance now is about 80 feet, said KPS Vice President Gary D. Kimbrell. The Transportation Security Administration now requires about 120 feet for security reasons, he said.

The additional space would take the shape of a corridor that would allow passengers to move from concourse to concourse in the post-security area. Also created would be room on the lower level for the baggage scanners that sit on the upper level, Plosser said.

An opportunity also would exist for adding concessions in the area, he said.

Airport managers put a $30 million estimate on the development project a year ago when they sought architects to draw up plans. Finance Director Walker Johnson said Thursday that the authority will use a mix of revenue bonds and fees collected for each passenger who boards a plane. "All details have not been worked out at this time" on issuing the bonds, he said.

KPS' report on its predesign progress is the first presentation to the airport's board, said airport engineer James Ray. He said the three concepts will continue to change until the architects develop one that will go to the board for approval.

A design may be in hand by 2006's first quarter, said Loyce Clark, the airport's planning and development director.

Board members will hear proposed timelines on the project at a committee meeting Monday.

E-mail: cmccauley@bhamnews.com

Good news!

Yeh they've been tearing up and expanding so much that they had to move a road I use to get to the 117th Air Wing's base. Just random fyi.

I hope they do something. I recently flew from Orlando to Bham (first time I ever flew) and was amazed at the difference in the airports. Orlando's is huge and very nice looking with mono rail type shuttles to take you to you individual gate after you go through security. Birmingham's airport was, well kinda dumpy looking. I am probably comparing apples to oranges in looking at the two airports but I was a little ashamed of ours.

Absolutely... Orlando is a slightly larger city, but in a HUGE city for entertainment, and thus, tourism. Airports are modern day gateways to the city. Orlando gets much more air traffic and thus spends more money on the aesthetics and things of that sort.

This is good news. Bham airport needs some new life. It's so stale.

Agreement... ahh... how refreshing! Looks like they selected Concept #1 from the above article.
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Room sought for big planes
Airport administrators agree on concept
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
CHARLES R. McCAULEY
News staff writer
Birmingham airport staffers Monday said they favor a renovation proposal that calls for demolishing the airport's terminal and replacing it with a concourse to handle big jets for international flights.

Reconfiguring Concourse B into a docking area for regional jets so passengers aren't exposed to the weather when boarding and disembarking also is part of that proposal, airport executives said at a Birmingham Airport Authority meeting.

Gates on the lower level to access regional jet gates would depend on the airport authority deciding to dedicate space just for commuter jets, said Loyce Clark, planning and development director. The renovation concept is the second of three outlined last week by architects KPS Group. Airport managers hired the firm to develop designs for upgrading the two-story building to meet new security requirements and passenger demands during the next 15 years.

The renovation project would be the second for the airport authority, which took over management of the facility from the city in 1986.

The first project cost $50.4 million and was completed in 1994. No price has been set for the new project, though airport managers estimated $30 million last year when hiring KPS Group. The board plans to sell bonds and use passenger use fees to repay the loan.

The plans are in the early stages, but a recommended design probably will be delivered to the authority by the end of January, said James Ray, airport project manager. "At that point, the board has the right to either go forward with the plan or not, approve what scheme we want to go with," he said.

If the board says to continue, the next 12 to 18 months will involve getting a design drawn and determining the cost. Construction contracts would follow, Ray said. Officials estimate construction could begin as early as 2007.

After the KPS presentation last week, administrators agreed on one concept as "the scheme that would best fit," Ray said.

Clark said it proposes building a Concourse A in the location of Terminal A and the air freight building, redefining use of the Concourse B area and remodeling Concourse C, which has nine gates, to accommodate eight planes at one time.

Among other features, airline ticket counters would be relocated to a central point of the building, where the authority's offices are situated. Up to 12 security checkpoints would be centralized on the second level where Northwest and Continental ticket counters are now, Clark said.

Concourse A would be a multiuse facility that would have boarding bridges for 747 aircraft and house the federal inspection services, including customs and immigration agencies, and other airline support services.

All the predesign options included widening the terminal from 80 feet to about 120 feet to meet federal standards for passenger and baggage security instituted since Sept. 11, 2001. The terminal's lower level would then have enough room to fit the large baggage screening machines now located at the ticket counters on the terminal's upper level.

Added to the backside of the building would be a corridor to allow passengers to move from concourse to concourse on the secure side of the terminal, Clark said.

E-mail: cmccauley@bhamnews.com