Winds Of Change Blowing At San Jose International Airport

Posted on Sun, Feb. 15, 2004 
 
Winds Of Change Blowing At Airport
San Jose Mercury News, CA


In 10 years, airline travelers may find Mineta San
Jose International Airport a decidedly different
place: a modern airfield where passengers are funneled
through a 40-gate double-deck super-terminal
stretching nearly a mile.

Passengers would use people movers to travel the long
distances from ticket counters in the central terminal
to airline gates in the north and south concourses. A
double-deck road in front of the terminal would
separate traffic: Departing passengers would be
dropped off on the upper deck; arriving passengers
would be picked up on the lower deck. Some might use a
rail transit link.

Next month, airport officials are set to ask the San
Jose City Council for the go-ahead.

The price tag: more than $1.8 billion, paid by
airlines, concessionaires, bonds and grants from
federal fees, not general tax funds. And that estimate
is in 2001 dollars, certain to increase with
inflation.

``Everyone touts this as the largest public works
project the city has ever undertaken, but if you look
at Chicago and Atlanta, this is a very economical
project,'' said Carl Honaker, chairman of the San Jose
Airport Commission, which advises the city council on
airport issues.

The new terminal complex would be a far different
facility than today's -- two passenger terminals of
different vintages separated by a one-third of a mile
of open ramp and an often confusing road system.
Except for one of its gates, Terminal C, which opened
in 1965, doesn't even have permanent jet bridges to
protect passengers from rain.

1998 master plan

The new terminal complex will be the ultimate
build-out of Silicon Valley's aviation portal under a
master plan adopted in 1998 but changed substantially
since. After the James M. Nissen Terminal, named for
the original manager and builder of San Jose's
airport, is completed, there's no more room to expand.

Airport security -- not demand for service -- is
driving the design and construction of the project's
first phase, where new baggage-screening devices would
be kept. San Jose's airport business has plummeted
since the Sept. 11 attacks. There were 11.1 million
passengers last year, compared with 13.1 million in
2000.

``You've got the opportunity to build the airport of
the 21st century,'' said Frank Kirkbride, the
airport's deputy director. ``Everything changed after
9/11. It forced you to look at how a facility
functions.''

Construction will begin this spring on the north
concourse, which will hold the automated baggage
machines, boarding gates and ticketing counters. It
will connect Terminal A and the international arrivals
area in the north with Terminal C in the south.

The remainder of the terminal complex, designed to
handle a maximum of 17.3 million passengers a year,
would then be built in stages.

``The project is really coming together nicely.
They've got a real good plan,'' Honaker said.

Although groundbreaking on the north concourse is
near, the airport staff can't say yet what the
building will look like.

``We're still in the early stages of determining the
function, look and feel of the concourse,'' Kirkbride
said. ``We don't know what it looks like. You can
build the most beautiful icon in the world, but if it
doesn't function, you've got nothing.''

Seeking feedback

Airport officials are consulting eight focus groups of
users ranging from business travelers to vacationers
``to see what their needs are, to walk them through
the evolving design,'' he said.

Once the function, look and feel of the building is
known, final design can begin, Kirkbride said. ``We
look at the big picture, then start drilling down to
the details. We have to know how each piece of the
puzzle fits.''

Airport officials know the basic footprint of the
building, so utility relocation and excavation for the
foundation can start as soon as the council gives a
go-ahead, which observers expect.

``We can work on design while excavating,'' Kirkbride
said. When the design is finalized, the steel frame of
the building can be erected.

>From groundbreaking, the construction on the north
concourse would be completed in 30 months. ``It's a
very aggressive schedule,'' Kirkbride said. ``You've
got to make timely decisions.''

The concourse is needed to help the airport better
meet the federal mandate that all bags must be
screened -- currently a ``very labor-intensive manual
operation, and very costly,'' Kirkbride said. ``The
machines are geared to process baggage much quicker
than we are loading it.''

The lower level will hold an automated in-line baggage
screening system that will sort luggage and search for
explosives. Until the terminal complex can be
finished, the upper level will have an entrance,
ticket counters, baggage claim, passenger screening
stations, boarding gates, and food and drink
concessions. If the entire complex is completed, the
north concourse will have only gates, holding rooms
and baggage screening. Price for this first phase:
$241 million.

The schedule for the rest of the super-terminal is a
``moving target,'' Kirkbride said. ``We're going to
build when the demand is there.''

Depends on demand

If the economy turns around, if air travel increases,
if the airlines need more space, the $250 million
south concourse could be built south of Terminal C in
the 30 months after the north concourse is completed,
Kirkbride said.

Next would be the keystone -- the $287 million central
terminal -- to replace Terminal C and connect the
north and south concourses into a single, 40-gate
structure. All ticketing, passenger screening and
baggage claims would be moved into the central
terminal.

Then Terminal A, which opened in 1990, would be
converted into an extension of the north concourse, at
a cost of $172 million.

And while the buildings are going up, a $350 million
double-deck road is planned for the length of the
terminals to separate the upper, departure level from
the lower arrivals level.

``When it's all said and done, the terminal will do
exactly what the mayor wanted it to do -- become a
gateway to Silicon Valley,'' Honaker said of San Jose
Mayor Ron Gonzales. ``We are going to be miles ahead
incorporating art with architecture. Visitors will
say, that's San Jose, that's where I am.''

 

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