Tunnel vision
Airport wants to give travelers a taste of Pittsburgh entering new terminal
Just what Pittsburgh needs — another tunnel.
Only this won’t be an ordinary one.
It’s meant to replicate the dramatic entrance into Downtown from the Fort Pitt Tunnel. And it won’t be used by motorists, but by travelers at Pittsburgh International Airport.
A new tunnel, also described as a connector bridge, is in the works as part of the $1.4 billion airport modernization that includes a new landside building that will house the security checkpoint, ticketing, and baggage claim.
The new landside facility, now under construction, is tucked between the C and D concourses of the existing airside building, where people board and get off planes.
As travelers leave the new landside building, they will pass through an oval-shaped one-way tunnel that will take them into the airy-feeling airside core.
The idea is to give them a taste of what it’s like to enter Downtown from the Fort Pitt Tunnel.
“Pittsburgh is a city with a magnificent entrance and this design, as part of our new terminal program, provides travelers with a similar experience,” Paul Hoback, chief development officer of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, stated on the airport’s Blue Sky News blog. “Capturing the essence of Pittsburgh is an important part of our new facility.”
Construction of the tunnel is expected to start soon near the airside escalators that take travelers to and from the train that runs to and from the current landside building.
The airport is urging travelers to give themselves more time to get to their gates during construction.
If all goes according to plan, the new landside facility will be finished in 2025.
The existing building will be either demolished or repurposed.