Parking growth

XNA Construction at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport will add another 450 parking spaces in the lots across from the airport terminal. Construction should be complete by December. The new total parking spaces will be: Short term: 489 Long term: 1,1

Ryk Dunkelberg, vice president for aviation planning at Mead & Hunt, presented several traffic flow models that would keep cars from clogging the front of the terminal, including a western access road that could bypass the terminal and give separate access to the rental lot or a future parking deck.

Commuters don’t expect to walk past 1,000 feet to get to the terminal entrance, and some parking areas at the airport now exceed that limit, Dunkelberg said.

A parking deck positioned in front of the terminal could have a round entrance with a sky path crossing from its third level directly into the second level of the terminal. That addition would give potential space for offices or, if the escalators leading to security were repositioned, it would add room for a security queue instead of the current congestion.

“This is a very massive and important undertaking. It’s as important as when we did the terminal building,” Dunkelberg said.

A third option presented to the committee was for a rental-only parking deck beside the terminal. Because it would be for rental cars only a third level would not need a roof, and the concrete structure would cost less than other options.

Committee members asked about the possibility of building a three-story parking deck for commuters in the short-term lot and the rental- only garage next to the terminal.

Johnson said he liked that the first site would lend itself to rental and commuter parking initially and could be converted to commuter-only parking later.

“We’re going to end up building a rental only across the street at some point,” Johnson said.

Extra entrances and exits needed to house rentals and public parking could be built onto the building so they could be removed later, consultants told the committee

Costs would vary based on traffic flow to and from the buildings. Consultants discussed flyover crossings, pedestrian traffic flow and car traffic around the terminal and to the different parking structures. The first option had the most costly estimate at $ 31 million, but $2 million of that price hinged on a ramp to separate traffic below.

How much can the authority afford to do now, Stan Green, a member of the authority’s board, asked the committee.

Green said he favored building two structures, one for commuters and one for rental cars, and planning now before construction costs go up again.

“I’m not saying we want gold-plated parking spaces,” Green said. “We’ve gotta get the financial side of things worked out.”

The numbers presented to the committee do not have the full picture, Johnson said.

“There’s more costs floating around because this is design and construction,” he said.

The committee will discuss the issue again during the Nov. 18 meeting.