Ins and Outs Changing for Salt Lake City International AirportDrivers

December 4, 2003

Ins and Outs Changing for Airport Drivers 
Salt Lake Tribune, UT 
    
Those fierce battles drivers wage for curb space at Salt Lake City 
International Airport when dropping off or picking up passengers may soon 
become a thing of the past -- or at least less intense. 
    Later this month, airport officials will open a new set of traffic lanes in 
front of Terminals 1 and 2 in an effort to ease congestion, impose some traffic 
order and -- they hope -- take airport security officers out of the business of 
continually harassing drivers to keep things moving along. 
    "It's going to be different. It'll be a whole new way of operating," 
airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said Wednesday. "What this is going to do is 
give people more options." 
    Now, all drivers are funneled to a common area to unload departing 
passengers and pick up arrivals, along the second set of traffic lanes in front 
of the two main passenger terminals. Courtesy shuttles and taxis use the inside 
lanes. 
    With the completion of the Terminal Roadway Improvement Project -- the 
opening is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 20 -- drop-offs will use what will 
become the middle set of lanes; pick-ups will be directed to the new outer 
lanes. Essentially, the $3.6 million project is a ground-level version of the 
upper-and-lower level departure and arrival areas at many major airports. 
    Drivers arriving at Salt Lake International will gain approximately 1,300 
feet of new curb space in the deal. Airport officials also hope that by 
segregating the two groups, some semblance of order can be restored to what is 
often a chaotic curbside scene -- particularly during peak periods. 

    "The real reason we did this was, because, now that we're doing 100 percent 
[passenger and luggage] screening, we were having a lot of problems with 
drop-offs and checking bags," said Kevin Robins, the airport's director of 
engineering. "We needed a safer environment for drop-offs and those passengers 
using the sky cap service. Because we got to the point that we were actually 
closing off lanes [for safety reasons], we decided to take a look at the whole 
thing." 
    The solution was simple, as it turned out. The landscaping installed 
between the current arrival/departure lanes and the parking garage was 
attractive enough, but it was essentially wasted space in the airport's most 
congested area. It had to go. 
    "This is really going to enhance our curbside capacity and ease 
congestion," said Robins. "The good thing is, it has a lot of flexibility . . . 
People can change lanes and move to the other [departure or arrival lanes] if 
one set of lanes is too crowded." 
    David Korzep, Salt Lake International's superintendent of operations, says 
security in the load/unload zone will be maintained. Drivers will not be 
allowed to linger curbside and wait for arriving passengers -- a Park 'n' Wait 
lot with flight information has been established at the south end of Long Term 
lot "A" for that purpose. 
    But Korzep also says that with less congestion, there should be less 
curbside activity for the airport's security staff. 
    "Our people don't want to be the bad guys chasing people off," he said. 
"This will allow us to be a little more customer-service oriented." 
    The new departure and arrival lanes are just part of a flurry of ongoing 
airport construction activity. 
    The big one: realigning the airport's entry roads, the first phase of what 
will eventually be an enormous project to relocate the long-term parking lots, 
then later, replace Terminals 1 and 2 and the current parking garage with new 
facilities -- probably sometime after 2010. 
    Airport designers are also trying to figure out how best to accommodate new 
checked baggage screening equipment. 
    Officials hope to place the large explosive detection system (EDS) 
machines, currently shoehorned into the terminal lobby areas, in the walled-off 
areas behind the ticket counters. However, they may ultimately be forced to 
expand the terminals outward -- toward the shuttle traffic lanes -- to make all 
the pieces fit. 

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