After 25 Years, Logan Gets Facelift & New Hotel
<B> After 25 Years, Logan Gets Facelift & New Hotel</B>
By Frank Rosci
<I>Boston</I> - A $1 billion modernization program underway at Boston's Logan International Airport soon will render the facility one of the nation's most up-to-date, environmentally correct airports.
The modernization will feature improved and additional amenities, including upgraded baggage handling facilities, better traffic circulation patterns at drop-off and pick-up locations, new roadways, valet parking, more square footage in lounges, more front-line customer service personnel, shorter walking distances to gates, new signs in Terminal C and a new state-of-the-art Hilton Hotel at the airport.
The program will solidify Logan's position as an economic powerhouse for greater Boston and all of New England, said Thomas J. Kinton Jr., Logan's aviation director.
"There haven't been major improvements at Logan in more than 20 years," says Kinton, "and this effort to modernize by the Massachusetts Port Authority, Logan's owner and operator, is long overdue, and addresses pressing concerns about making Logan more passenger-friendly."
Environmental benefits resulting from the project include a reduction in aircraft emissions from aircraft and the institution of new noise reduction policies.
Modernization became necessary for three reasons, Kinton said: "First, the majority of Logan's facilities and terminals are more than 25 years old. Second, construction of the Boston Third Harbor Tunnel has displaced existing facilities and caused the loss of aircraft gates. Ironically, that permitted improvement of ground transportation and a reduction of traffic in adjacent neighborhoods. And third, a number of airlines continue to replace smaller planes with new wide-body jets, increasing the number of passengers who use the airport."
Conservative estimates predict that 37 to 45 million air travelers will be using Logan by the year 2010, compared with 25 million who used the airport in 1997.
Current facilities just can't handle that kind of volume, Kinton said. The Terminal E customs facility, the current international arrivals facility, for example, was built in the 1970s to accommodate 600 passengers per hour and upgraded in the 1980 to process 1,200 passengers per hour. Today's international demand on the facility is well over 1,900 passengers per hour.
Phase I of the program, with a price tag of $39 million, involved the modernization of Terminal E and a major portion of Terminal D. It was completed in May 1997. Phase II, with a projected cost of $302 million, gets underway later this year and is scheduled for completion in 2003.
During Phase II, 350,000 square feet of space will be added to Terminal E, which will include passenger hold rooms, U.S. Customs and Immigrations facilities and concessions. A new dual-level roadway system will cut down curb and roadway congestion, while a future West Concourse will add three more gates.
Other work includes a 3,150-car, seven-story, central garage addition that will consolidate parking from several remote lots to a central location. As part of this work, climate-controlled pedestrian walkways will link parking to passenger terminals, and moving sidewalks will reduce walking distances considerably.
Phase II also will include the Airport Intermodal Transit Connector, a dual-route bus system that will link Logan more effectively to Boston's regional transportation network--including commuter rail trains and Boston Harbor Water Shuttles--and an improved roadway system.
New taxi and limo pools will minimize curbside congestion and give drivers expanded waiting areas. Flight monitors at the limo pool will advise drivers when it's time to pick up their passengers.
In addition to the modernization project, US Airways and United Airlines, working with the Massachusetts Port Authority, have committed to new developments of their own, with the distinct possibility that other airlines, notably American and Delta, soon will follow suit, Kinton said.
US Airways recently opened its Boston Terminal Renovation Project, a 27,000-square-foot passenger gate area that features a dramatic, soaring roofline. The project adds 75 percent more space, including 365 seats serving multiple gates, for the more than 2.6 million passengers the airline accommodates at Logan annually. A new food court and the 11,000-square-foot US Airways Club opened earlier this year.
Another phase of the $49-million project, completed in June, is a new passenger gate area for US Airways Express and expanded ticketing and baggage claim areas.
United Airlines, which will be flying the first Boeing 777s into Logan, is investing $33 million in new facilities. The project also will allow United to consolidate its operation into a single concourse in Terminal C, with an increase of from six to 10 gates. "Our operation at Logan is now spread over three areas," said Sean Donohue, United's Boston city manager. "Construction will put everything under one roof, increasing speed, efficiency, and convenience for our passengers, who used to have to walk five or 10 minutes to the gates."
For business travelers, United's new 6,000-square-foot Red Carpet Lounge is equipped with 15 to 20 workstations, as are all such lounges in the airline's system. New retail space--featuring national and international brand names, including Boston Landing with its 22 stores and kiosks in Terminal C--heighten Logan's modernization picture, Kinton said.
Construction on a new 600-room Logan Airport Hilton and Towers, with an easily accessible core location, will be completed in October 1999. Rooms here are outfitted as Hilton "Work-Smart Guest Rooms," featuring two-line telephones, electronic voice mail and data ports.