National Airport: Upgrade will include new terminal
<H1>National Airport: Upgrade will include new terminal</H1><H3>By Barbara Cook</H3><I>Washington, D.C. </I>- As part of the Department of Transportation's plan to modernize air traffic control equipment nationwide, Washington National Airport in February received an $8 million Doppler weather radar system (TDWR)-one of only nine such systems now being installed at airports around the country.
TDWR is a highly sensitive, high-resolution radar designed to detect all types of wind shear at airports, including microbursts, major wind shifts and precipitation. The system allows air traffic controllers to steer aircraft away from any of these deadly weather conditions.
By next year, the systems are expected to be in place at Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport as well. The Federal Aviation Administration also has commissioned TDWR systems in Kansas City, St. Louis, Boston, Wichita, Denver, Houston, Memphis, Atlanta and Charlotte. Another 37 systems are to be installed at U.S. airports later this year.
Meanwhile, a $1.5 billion construction program at National and Dulles is approaching completion. The work is expected to totally modernize National, the city's mainly domestic service facility, and add needed improvements to 33-year-old Dulles.
The program has earmarked $1 billion for National, which for years has suffered from a small terminal and insufficient parking areas. National, a short-haul facility served by 14 major carriers, is limited to handling flights with a 1,250-mile maximum. The facility, which serviced more than 15.5 million passengers last year, is about a10- to 15-minute cab ride from downtown Washington.
The renovation program will add a new, state-of-the-art terminal, convenient parking garages, high-tech air traffic control facilities, and new shops and restaurants. By the spring of 1997-the target date for completion-passengers will be able to use a moving sidewalk system to enter and exit the new terminal from the garage and the Metro subway system, which links the airport to downtown and nearby suburbs.
"From a business travel perspective, we're very excited about the improvements and additions at the airports, particularly at National, where improvements are long overdue," said Marie Tibor, vice president of communications and tourism for the Washington Convention and Visitors Association.
At Dulles airport, the centerpiece of the modernization effort will be the doubling of the terminal's size to accommodate a centralized ground transportation center for bus, hotel shuttle, taxi and rental car services. The terminal's windswept design is being carried over into the new addition, part of which will open for service before the summer. The airport already has completed a year-long upgrade of its food service concessions, which offer fast- food outlets, sit-down restaurants and lounges. The airport also has introduced self-serve baggage cart rentals that offer partial refunds upon return of the carts.
BWI is undergoing a $110 million construction program that will double the facility's international concourse by mid-1997. The expansion will include a new federal inspection facility that's expected to process 900 passengers per hour. A light rail station will be constructed on the lower level of the international concourse, providing a mass transit link to the Baltimore area.
Future BWI plans also call for an underground people mover that will connect the main terminal to permanent midfield terminals, and short-term and long-term parking garages.
-Frank Rosci contributed to this report.