OKC airport expansion
Demolition clears way for project
As passengers checked in for flights inside Will Rogers World Airport on a recent weekday afternoon, an excavator outside moved the mangled remains of a cargo building east of the airport terminal.
Demolition began last week on the building to clear the way for an airport expansion.
“We’re excited to get underway with that,” said Mark Kranenburg, Oklahoma City airports director. “There’s been a lot of activity that’s been unseen, and so we’re glad that now we’re finally knocking some things down.”
Workers also are relocating utility service lines and telecommunications conduits so that the contractor that eventually comes in to build the terminal expansion will have a clean site, said JR Day, senior project manager for the city of Oklahoma City’s Department of Airports.
The planned terminal expansion project will includea streamlined security checkpoint, new gates and a public observation
gallery, among other features.
“The intent with all of those things is to enhance the customer experience,” said Karen Carney, an airport spokeswoman.
Officials still have some more steps to go through before they are ready to start construction on the terminal expansion. If everything works out, Kranenburg said, they hope to be in a position to solicit bids for the project sometime late this year or early next year. Once construction starts, the expansion will take about two years to complete, Kranenburg said.
The total project is expected to cost nearly $90 million. Of that, $76.8 million will be funded by revenue bonds. Seventyfive percent of the bonds will be repaid with revenue received from passenger facility charges, an existing $4.50 user fee charged with every ticket a person buys. The remaining 25 percent will come from other airport revenue sources. The remaining $12.9 million will be funded by federal grants.
As Oklahoma City continues to develop, the airport wants to be ready for that growth, Kranenburg said.
Currently, the airport only has one leasable gate available, officials said. The expansion will add four more gates, giving the airport a total of 21 gates, Carney said. The design will allow the airport to add gates in the future if demand warrants.
During the 2016 fiscal year, Will Rogers World Airport had more than 3.7 million passengers.
“The expansion is really a reflection of the city of Oklahoma City and what’s going on in our community,” Carney said. “Granted, we’ve kind of hit a little bit of a lull, but overall we have this great momentum going in our city of diversifying all of the different business sectors and attracting people to Oklahoma City. … The airport needs to be ready for that and needs to be able to accommodate that.”
As part of the expansion, officials also plan to create a new centralized security checkpoint that will start with eight lanes and be expandable to 10 lanes.
The airport currently has two checkpoints. From a personnel standpoint, Carney said, it doesn’t make sense to have two checkpoints open during slow times. From a customer standpoint, it can be frustrating for travelers not knowing which checkpoint will be open, she said.
Officials plan to repurpose the areas where the existing checkpoints are located into “meeter greeter” lobbies where people can wait to greet travelers arriving at the airport, which will help alleviate congestion, Carney said.
The expansion project also includes plans for an observation gallery that will allow the public to view the airfield.
“We want people to enjoy aviation,” Carney said.
The expansion is really a reflection of the city of Oklahoma City and what’s going on in our community. … Overall we have this great momentum going in our city of diversifying all of the different business sectors and attracting people to Oklahoma City. … The airport needs to be ready for that and needs to be able to accommodate that.” Karen Carney, spokeswoman for Will Rogers World Airport