PHOTO: Rendering of LaGuardia Airport after massive redesign project that is expected to begin next year. Photo Courtesy of Gov. Cuomo’s Office
In what many passengers, transportation pundits, and pols have viewed as a long-overdue announcement, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, unveiled on Monday the “vision” for the comprehensive redesign of LaGuardia Airport.
The transit hub, once infamously derided by Biden as “some Third World country,” will be transformed into a single, structurally unified main terminal with expanded transportation access, increased taxiway space and best-in-class passenger amenities, Cuomo noted.
Construction on the first half of the new unified terminal, expected to be a $4 billion project that creates 8,000 direct jobs and 10,000 indirect jobs, will be managed by LaGuardia Gateway Partners, a new public private partnership chosen by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to build the project.
“New York had an aggressive, can-do approach to big infrastructure in the past—and today, we’re moving forward with that attitude once again,” Cuomo said. “We are transforming LaGuardia into a globally-renowned, 21st Century airport that is worthy of the city and state of New York. It’s the perfect metaphor for what we can achieve with the ambition and optimism and energy that made this the Empire State in the first place, and I want to thank our many partners for joining us to build the airport that New York deserves.”
First-half construction will begin upon final approval from the Port Authority Board of Directors, which is expected in the first part of 2016; the majority of this first half of the project is expected to open to passengers in 2019, with full completion scheduled for approximately 18 months after that.
The second half of the new unified terminal is expected to be redeveloped by Delta Air Lines, which has indicated strong support for the new vision, and anticipates beginning the redevelopment of its terminals on a parallel track with the LaGuardia Gateway Partners project to complete the new unified airport, according to the governor’s office.
In addition to the unified terminal structure, the Governor’s Advisory Panel made a number of other recommendations that will complement the new facility and bring LaGuardia into the 21st century, Cuomo said, including an AirTrain option that directly connects LaGuardia to the New York City subway and Long Island Rail Road at Mets-Willets Point Station; additional space for security check-in, which will help diminish wait times for passengers as they pass through mandatory Transportation Security Administration screening; elevating critical infrastructure in order to keep the airport operational during a flood event and better prepare the airport for similar extreme weather events; and increasing parking options on-site and identifying a location for a cell phone waiting area in order to reduce congestion on local streets.
Currently, LaGuardia contributes more than $16 billion in economic activity to the region annually, generating about 121,000 total jobs and $5.9 billion in annual wages.
Additionally, Cuomo on Monday provided an update on the status of efforts to revolutionize and modernize John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Cuomo announced the construction of a new state-of-the-art hotel at JFK in the historic TWA Flight Center, a $265 million construction project that will break ground next year and is expected to generate 3,700 jobs.
Queens Borough President Melinda Katz, a member of the Governor’s Airport Advisory Panel, said that infrastructure upgrades are critical to the airports in order to remain competitive, and “with them has come the need to mitigate the direct, daily impacts of growth upon the thousands of families immediately surrounding them.”
To that end, Katz recommended that the Port Authority expand its Aircraft Noise program throughout construction phases of the new LaGuardia.
By Michael V. Cusenza
michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
