"Hartsfield delays construction for bomb-detection machines"

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Airport delays construction for bomb-detection machines
By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution


Construction work that will cause traffic detours at Hartsfield-Jackson
International Airport won't start until after the Fourth of July, airport
General Manager Ben DeCosta says.
  
Work on two underground rooms to house bomb-detecting machines was supposed
to start in mid-May and will cause traffic disruption as cars are routed
through parking lots.
 
DeCosta on Tuesday said the project has been delayed while the airport works
out kinks in the design of the rooms.
 
Airport managers decided to start the work after Independence Day partly to
cut down on inconvenience to large crowds of travelers at the beginning of
the summer travel season, he said.
 
The airport has, however, finished changing signs to reflect the new name,
which honors both former Atlanta mayors William Hartsfield and Maynard
Jackson. DeCosta and city officials gathered Tuesday evening to mark the
renaming, which was approved by the Atlanta City Council in October.
 
DeCosta said changing signs and stationery cost the city "much less" than
$100,000.
 
The security project, by contrast, involves heavy construction and costs
$215 million.
 
The bomb-machine rooms are needed to meet a post-9/11 federal goal of
screening all checked luggage for explosives.
 
The 18-month construction project has been delayed several times as the
government and airport negotiated how to pay for the work.
 
Congress initially ordered that automated bomb-detection systems should be
installed at all airports by the end of 2002. Atlanta, along with many hub
airports, got an extension because of the complexity and huge cost of the
undertaking. Construction was first scheduled to begin last November.
 
But the airport didn't want to start the project without promises that the
federal government would cover costs, and negotiations took several months.
In February, officials announced an agreement on funding and the said work
would begin this spring.
 
Now, DeCosta said the airport has to work out design problems in plans
prepared by a federal contractor.
 
Boston's Logan International Airport has been a leader in addressing the
bomb-scanning problem. After terrorists hijacked two planes in Boston and
plowed them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the airport made
the addition of bomb-detecting rooms a priority.
 
DeCosta and other airport directors have been reluctant to start without a
promise of federal reimbursement because they do not want to use money meant
for airport capacity improvements.


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