The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
AIRPORT CHIEF ON WHY GROWTH SEES A SQUEEZE
Hartsfield-Jackson expands facilities on limited land.
As Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport expands, it’s running out of space.
So in order to build, the airport must demolish buildings, move critical operations, close parking lots and divert travelers during construction.
That complicates the airport’s long-range, $6 billion expansion plan, now in the early stages, and turns parts of it into a giant game of Tetris as planners cram new facilities into limited space.
“The biggest challenge we have as an airport is we’re on 4,700 acres,” Hartsfield-Jackson general manager Roosevelt Council said. “There’s not a lot of greenfield space.”
While Atlanta has the world’s busiest airport, other airports with far less traffic have far more space — Dallas-Fort Worth International, for instance, with 18,000 acres and Denver International with 34,000.
Those airports “have been able to put together larger properties ... as air travel has grown,” said Jeff Letwin, special counsel at law firm Saul Ewing who has expertise in airport expansion and redevelopment.
Hartsfield-Jackson, by contrast, is hemmed in by I-85 to the north and west, I-75 to the east and I-285 to the south. The airport is also surrounded by communities of people and businesses including College Park, Forest Park and Hapeville.
Hartsfield-Jackson has “done a tremendous job of accommodating on a small space this huge airport — the busiest airport in the world,” Letwin said.
Now, as the modernization program gets going, almost every big construction element will require relocating facilities. The end result, if all goes well, will be an airport with much more capacity but about the same physical footprint.
For airport officials and project managers, it’s a juggling act that demands extensive planning and creativity, and can require more time and money to demolish and rebuild facilities, compared to an expansion on undeveloped land.
Curbside canopies
staging areas, a taxi hold lot and other facilities.
A longer-term element, a new Concourse G on the eastern end of the existing line of concourses, will require moving Delta cargo facilities, flight kitchens, employee parking and airport buildings.
Because Delta wants to keep its cargo facilities and flight kitchens close to its planes, the facilities will be moved farther east but still within the airport boundaries.
But that, in turn, means displacing an airport fire station and occupying the site of three current Georgia Power substations.
Another planned project, adding gates to Concourse T, requires curving it to the west to avoid interfering with a runway protection zone. That means the addition will take up part of a parking lot at the domestic terminal and it will require the move of an exit plaza and airport fire station.
‘No available room’
for the lost parking spaces, but it will take a couple of years to complete and will act as a remote parking deck reachable by SkyTrain rather than premium spaces or parking lots within walking distance. Also planned is a park-ride shuttle lot off Sullivan Road.
Other projects on the airfield will require the move of buildings used for airport operations and safety.
Constructing new cargo buildings requires moving an Atlanta Police Department airport K9 facility, a maintenance building and an old Gate Gourmet flight kitchen, and the relocation of a stretch of Sullivan Road.
One of the biggest projects ahead is a sixth runway. Though years away, the work would likely require several hotels to close.
A Sheraton has already been acquired and will be shut down in July and is expected to be demolished in the future to make way for future airport expansion.
Squeezing in runway