Really good. Check out the other thread about it, harrisburger (the one that says bpg88, ColDayMan & Paradox21 coming to your town...).
:carrot:
CLEARED FOR TAKEOFF
New HIA terminal offers security, convenience
Sunday, August 22, 2004
BY ELLEN LYON
Of The Patriot-News
Two years and two days after a ground-breaking ceremony at which an artist's drawing of the new terminal at Harrisburg International Airport was displayed, the real thing will open next Sunday.
Contractors are putting the finishing touches on what airport officials boast is the first airport terminal in the country designed with post-9/11 security considerations in mind.
In the basement of the Y-shaped terminal is a 3/4-mile-long maze of green and yellow conveyor belts resembling a giant pinball machine powered by 306 motors. The system moves checked luggage through one of three $1.2 million baggage-screening machines.
"This is the latest, latest technology," HIA Aviation Director Fred Testa said.
Questionable bags are diverted to one of six stations for inspection by a human screener. Oversized baggage will be hand-scanned in a separate area.
The basement won't be open to the public. "It's a very secure basement," Testa said. "The president couldn't get down here without an ID."
Six wells drilled inside and four wells drilled outside the 18-foot-deep basement divert about 30 million gallons of water a month, according to Testa.
"We're built on fill. This all used to be the river," he said of the site, which has a 14-foot water table.
The $240 million construction project, which also includes a new parking garage, aircraft apron, 10,000-foot parallel taxiway and instrument landing system, is financed with federal and state grants, passenger facility charges and airport funds.
The new terminal has 12 multi-use jet gates and can serve up to 3 million passengers a year, Testa said. Last year, 1.5 million travelers used the airport in Lower Swatara Twp.
The building can be expanded to serve up to 14 million passengers with 26 gates, although Testa doesn't expect that much growth any time soon.
"It's built for the future," he added.
The terminal houses an airport police station, complete with interrogation room, two holding cells and multiple computer screens to display images from security cameras throughout the terminal and parking garage.
Travelers and their relatives and friends can eat at Varsity Grill and Sports Bar and in a food court with a Hudson News/Euro Cafe, McDonald's counter and Hershey's Ice Cream and LaVazza Coffee stand.
While the existing terminal has only two passenger and carry-on baggage screening lines, the new terminal will have three lines, with the potential to expand to six lines.
The longest walk from the security checkpoint to the farthest of the 12 boarding gates is 491 feet.
On the secure side of the terminal will be a Perfectly Pennsylvania Gift Shop selling only Pennsylvania-made items, a Hudson News and Hershey's Chocolate World shop, and a Capital Cafe and Lounge.
Frequent fliers who travel more than 25,000 miles a year can use the Susquehanna Club, which has work areas with Internet access, a conference room, copy and fax machines and a 52-inch television.
The terminal's other amenities include:
- Free wireless Internet access.
- Women's rest rooms twice the size of men's rest rooms.
- Electronic ticket check-in machines for travelers without baggage to check.
- Twice as many baggage-claim carousels (four) as the old terminal.
- Four smoking lounges equipped with separate exhaust and air-filtration systems.
- A third-floor observation deck, open to the public, overlooking the airport's 9,500-foot runway, which is capable of landing the world's largest aircraft. *ahem ahem HBG forumers...picture time?
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Across from the terminal, and connected to it by a sky bridge and moving sidewalks, is a four-story, 1.1 million-square-foot ground-transportation center and parking garage.
A disk on top of the garage gives it a space-age look but is actually designed for the more mundane task of diverting snow and ice from the building.
Travelers will have access to rental cars, taxis, limousines, hotel shuttles and buses on the first floor of the garage. A double-threaded helix with both entry and exit ramps leads to the top three levels and 2,474 public parking spaces.
Each level has multiple security cameras and eight "panic stations" where someone can set off an alarm to contact airport police.
HIA spent an additional $1.2 million on white concrete to brighten the interior of the 58-foot-tall garage.
Construction of a $10 million train station is stalled in talks between Amtrak and Norfolk Southern railroad, the state Department of Transportation and HIA. The next meeting of all the parties is scheduled for Aug. 31.
Eventually, HIA officials hope a hotel will open across from the old terminal. Moving sidewalks would connect it to the new complex, "so you're inside from the hotel to the plane," HIA spokesman Scott Miller said.
The Buccini/Pollin Group of New Castle, Del., is working on a plan to redevelop the old terminal as office space. It also will house customs operations and two boarding gates for international travelers.