"$20 Million Earmarked for Charleston Int'l Airport"

Friday, June 28, 2002

$20 MILLION EARMARKED FOR AIRPORT 
Unexpected bonanza provides funds for three-tier airport parking garage
BY JOHN P. MCDERMOTT
The Charleston (SC) Post and Courier 


     Charleston International Airport officials were prepared to go deep
in the hole to pay for a new three-tiered parking garage. Then they
discovered they were on the receiving end of an unexpected $20 million
windfall, courtesy of the U.S. government.

     On Thursday, the Charleston County Aviation Authority secured the
surprise bonanza by approving an agreement with the Federal Highway
Administration outlining the terms of the grant.

     The money was part of $529 million in federal highway funds
trickling back into South Carolina under the nearly $60 billion
transportation package that Congress passed last year. The garage has
been singled out in the national media as an example of the dozens of
pork-barrel projects that were included in the spending bill. 

     Sen. Fritz Hollings, who sits on two key committees that oversee
budget appropriations and aviation issues, went to bat for Charleston
International. Hollings spokesman Andy Davis defended the allocation,
saying, "Airports are an engine of economic development." Hollings, he
added, "has a pretty lengthy history of making sure that South Carolina
aviation - its airports, systems and infrastructure - are well-funded."
Indeed, last year Hollings helped snag a $2.5 million grant that paved
the way for an expansion of the aircraft-parking ramp at Charleston
International. 

     Sam Hoerter, airports director of Charleston County, said the
government largesse would save travelers and airlines money over the
long haul. Without it, the Aviation Authority would have to borrow and
repay the $20 million with interest, a cost that would be passed on to
all airport users through higher parking rates, rents and other fees.
"The grant is very gracious, and ultimately it flows to the benefit of
the people," Hoerter said.

     The deck is expected to cost more than $20 million, meaning the
airport must still come up with rest of the money. For the moment, $25
million is "a fair estimate," Hoerter said. Airport officials have been
talking about the need for a multilevel garage for several years. Last
summer, the authority hired two firms to design the deck, which would
accommodate about 1,300 vehicles and be built atop the existing
short-term parking lot. Work was temporarily halted after the Sept. 11
hijackings, but the airport has since decided to "proceed with caution,"
Hoerter said.

     The authority released about $500,000 Thursday so that its
architects and engineers can finish 50 percent of their work, a process
that will take about five months. Engineers also will perform a
mandatory blast analysis to measure the likely impact on the passenger
terminal should an explosive device ever be detonated in the garage.

     "Once the design is complete, we can make the decision whether to
go forward with the project," Hoerter said.


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