"Anchorage airport project should be done next summer"

Thursday, August 7, 2003 

Anchorage airport project should be done next summer
The Associated Press


ANCHORAGE - A new concourse under construction at Anchorage's international
airport is on track to be finished next summer, airport and state
Transportation Department officials said Wednesday. 

Originally scheduled to be done last summer, the 447,000-square-foot
Concourse C is the centerpiece of an airport makeover that is running years
behind schedule and hundreds of millions of dollars over its original cost
estimate. 

Its total projected cost stands at $408 million, up from a $230 million
forecast when work began in 1999 at Ted Stevens Anchorage International
Airport, said Dave Eberle, the state Transportation Department official
who's managing the job. 

Factors contributing to the higher costs include a flawed design, a decision
to start construction before permits were in hand, an expansion of the
project and security changes in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks. 

About $100 million of the cost overrun is related to seismic upgrades that
were not anticipated at the outset of the project, Eberle said. 

The project is being funded with airport revenue bonds that will be repaid
by airport tenants. Lawmakers during the last legislative session approved
$76 million more in bonds to pay for the project. 

That provided enough money to complete the concourse. Eberle said the
Transportation Department will ask for permission to issue more bonds to
cover the cost of the seismic work. 

The airport is owned by the state, but is self-funded. 

The new concourse will house nine jet gates, a ticketing area, a baggage
claim, a security screening hall, offices and operations support space. 

The glass, siding and other exterior parts of the building are expected to
be completed by late summer or early fall. Then workers will finish the
interior through the fall and winter. 

Once the bulk of the structural work is done, airlines, vendors and other
businesses that will lease space in the concourse will begin finishing their
areas. That work should start around December or January, Eberle said. 

All the construction is expected to be done by May 1, he said.


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