"Report calls for Lauderdale airport to add more gates to handle increased traffic"

Thursday, October 5, 2006

Report calls for Lauderdale airport to add more gates to handle increased
traffic
By Scott Wyman 
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 

 
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport must add more than 20 gates
in order to handle the expected growth in air travel over the next 15 years,
consultants told Broward County commissioners in a report released Thursday.

The consultants, Leigh Fisher Associates, said the county also must decide
between a piecemeal, modest expansion of existing facilities or plan for
decades of major renovation. The first approach would hinder further
expansion, whereas the other course would allow more gates to be added for
growth after 2020.
 
The questions add new fire to the ongoing debate over the airport's future
and the upcoming decision on whether to build a second major runway.

Commissioners said that before they decide about adding gates, they must
choose what to do about the runway. They will not know how much the gate
expansion ideas would cost until next month and will debate both the runway
and the expansion early next year.

"The problem in looking at these different terminal configurations is that
without knowing what you're going to do with the runway, you can't know what
you're going to do with the terminals," Commissioner John Rodstrom said.
"What happens with the runway will affect what happens with the terminals.
And you want to make sure the costs aren't so high that this is no longer a
low-cost airport."

Airport traffic has doubled since its long-range master plan was last
updated 11 years ago to 22 million passengers in 2005. Traffic is expected
to continue growing at almost 4 percent a year for the next 15 years.
Officials pledged two years ago to update the airport plans as part of their
effort to win federal approval for the second runway.

According to the draft of the new master plan, the airport needs to expand
from its current 57 gates to 79 gates by 2020. At a minimum, that will
require building the currently planned Concourse A in Terminal 1, extend
Terminal 3 and redevelop Terminal 4.

Leigh Fisher said limited redevelopment over 15 years would keep
construction costs low, but would block further growth.

A broader, more costly project would be an almost wholesale rebuilding of
the airport. That sort of expansion would allow as many as 97 gates.

Terminals 2, 3 and 4, as well as the oldest parking garage, would all be
rebuilt under the most drastic of the options. A central passenger check-in
facility for all gates could also replace the current system of check-in
counters through the four terminals.

One key critic of the airport expansion greeted Leigh Fisher's ideas with
skepticism. Brenda Chalifour of Save Our Shoreline said the public lacked
adequate input into the plan's development and that she questioned its basic
assumptions, such as the travel forecasts and the need for more gates.

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