JFK Sees Airport-Wide Upgrades, Light Rail Construction
<B> JFK Sees Airport-Wide Upgrades, Light Rail Construction</B>
By David Jonas
International travelers passing through New York's JFK Airport likely will notice the ongoing construction of the international arrivals facility, the most apparent element of a $7 billion revitalization plan that touches almost every one of its passenger facilities.
The building, home to 40 foreign carriers and responsible for handling more international passengers than any other terminal at the airport, is being phased out, and the new Terminal 4--larger and with more gates, passenger services and access to ground transportation and parking--is being built in its place.
"It is a difficult but clever metamorphosis of the existing to the new while trying to keep operations going," said Ted Kleiner, director of the airport's redevelopment. He acknowledged that travelers will see the construction and have to pick up their baggage in a temporary facility across the street while ground transportation is rerouted around the construction site. The project will continue in phases until its completion in 2000.
Other terminal projects include the British Airways facility, which will have a two-level parking area extension that will mesh with ongoing light rail construction. The project will improve accessibility and create 800 new parking spaces by 2001.
American Airlines also has plans, including revamping its domestic and international buildings. Parking areas and roadways in and around AA's terminals already have been upgraded with additional lanes in front of the building and covered canopies extending into the lot.
Airport officials next will explore ways of improving Delta and TWA passenger facilities.
While extensive terminal construction seemingly would interfere with normal operations, officials stress that timing is essential. Most flight banks are concentrated in the early morning and after 3 p.m., so the airport is not very busy during the normal construction day.
Bill Cahill, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said, "Construction must be done without affecting operations. That's why projects take so many years to complete. An operations guy once told me, 'You can play softball on a JFK runway at 11:00 a.m.' "
Meanwhile, "I'll believe it when I see it" is the overriding sentiment of many New Yorkers regarding the creation of a light rail system linking JFK to other transportation centers. But those naysayers soon will be believers, as work on the Airtrain already is underway.
When completed in 2003, Airtrain will link all nine passenger terminals, rental car areas, long-term parking lots and several subway and bus lines in nearby Jamaica and Howard Beach. The goal is to slash travel time from Manhattan from as much as two hours to just 45 minutes, and intra-airport transport between the furthest terminals from as much as an hour to only eight minutes. The system also will include moving walkways between each stop and the adjacent terminals, and a station near one of the main entrances to the airport where passengers can be dropped off or picked up without driving to the central terminal area.
The rail line will run beneath taxiways that span a local expressway, but officials said the construction will not disrupt airline operations. "The staging of the construction has been carefully planned to avoid inconveniences to the traveling public," said Kleiner. "However, you don't build anything without dealing with operations."
Other recent improvements include the inner roadway infrastructure, which was redesigned for better access to all areas of the airport. "People are no longer in areas of the airport they don't need to be," said Kleiner.
More parking also has been added, most notably a new garage located opposite the new Terminal 1. Though the facility already is functioning, all 1,800 spaces will be available by the end of the year.
On the hotel front, a Four Points Sheraton opened nearby in the beginning of August. The 185-room property was converted from the former Kennedy Inn and features three phones and data ports in each room, as well as a fitness center, flexible meeting space and a 24-hour shuttle to all terminals.
Another on-airport hotel, complementing the Ramada Inn, may soon be in the works. According to Kleiner, developers have expressed interest, and a new facility located adjacent to the light rail line is "certainly a possibility" for the future.
In other airport news, more than 230 customer service representatives have been placed throughout the three New York area airports to aid travelers. Cahill said the positive feedback has been enormous. Free services have been expanded, including shuttle vans and luggage carts in the parking lots.
In addition, in the next two months, Internet access kiosks will be placed in AA, BA and Delta terminals at JFK. These installations are part of Port Authority's plan to place more than 100 Internet stations throughout the three area airports.
All improvements will enable JFK to handle up to 45 million passengers, a three-fold increase over its original design. The airport now handles just over 30 million annual passengers.