"LAX customs upgrade proposed"

Sunday, December 2, 2007

LAX customs upgrade proposed
$1.4M plan would include lighting, plumbing, security system improvements. 
By Art Marroquin
The Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram


Poor lighting, bad plumbing and a general feeling of gloom often greet
airline passengers at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection screening area
at Los Angeles International Airport.

Ceiling lights are so dim that customs officers sometimes find it difficult
to read documents as they process passengers at the Tom Bradley
International Terminal.

Toilets frequently flood, meaning international passengers often must endure
a long wait before they get a chance to find another restroom.

"It's such a depressing place to work, it's almost like a dungeon," said
Cristina Gamez, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection
office in Los Angeles.

That may soon change under a $1.4million improvement project scheduled for
consideration Monday by the Los Angeles airport commission.

If approved, Costa Mesa-based Clark/McCarthy would be hired to spruce up the
customs area with a new ceiling, lights, plumbing, heating and air
conditioning units, and fire alarms and sprinklers, according to a report by
Los Angeles World Airports, the city agency that operates LAX.

Plans also call for renovating the information booth and customs office area
in the departures lobby in the Bradley Terminal, relocating secondary
inspection booths and installing new power connections, according to the
report.

The work is expected to be completed within two years, according to Gamez.

"We desperately need to improve officer and passenger safety," Gamez said.
"It's going to look really good when it's all done."

The renovations come after a pair of massive U.S. Customs and Border
Protection computer meltdowns left thousands of international passengers
stranded at LAX in August.

A network interface card on a single desktop computer was blamed for
shutting down the entire customs screening system at the Bradley terminal on
Aug. 11, affecting nearly 17,400 passengers on 95 arriving international
flights. Some were held at the airport for more than 14 hours.

An unrelated power outage caused the screening system to shut down the next
day, leaving about 1,700 passengers stranded for two hours.

A backup computer system failed to engage in both instances.

Since then, U.S. customs officials have spent more than $1 million to
upgrade the computers at LAX, including an improved backup system, according
to Gamez. Ten new laptop computers will serve as a last resource in the
event of a power outage or another system meltdown, she said.

"We started doing that pretty immediately afterward," Gamez said. "And we're
always running tests to make sure the equipment is working properly."



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