Area of airport redone

$1.7 million goes to security in LR

— Little Rock National Airport, Adams Field, unveiled Tuesday a $1.7 million expansion of its passenger security checkpoint area.

The project is the first to be completed as part of the $67 million first phase of the airport’s terminal redevelopment. Other improvements will include a new in-line baggage system, an upgraded ticket lobby and energy-saving features. The two-year project is the first phase of an estimated $220 million renovation, work that is expected to extend beyond 2020.

“This is one small part of what you are going to see happen in the next few months,” said Virgil Miller Jr., the outgoing director of the Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission, which oversees the airport. Former Little Rock Mayor Jim Dailey, a member of the commission, takes over the chairmanship next month.

Miller and other airport officials gathered on the terminal’s second level in front of the curtain that blocked the 3,000-squarefoot expansion while the construction was taking place. A short distance from them, passengers lined up in the old queues that, during peak times, could extend to the airport’s first level.

“There will be no more lines down the escalator,” Miller said.

The remade area is expected to sharply reduce the lines and includes a security lane added to the four already in place and leaves room for two full body-scanners that also are expected to reduce wait times at the checkpoint. Transportation Security Administration officials still had to make some adjustments to the area before it was fully available. Also, only one scanner was in place Tuesday.

About 1.1 million passengers embark from Little Rock National annually. Although down from its peak from a few years ago, Miller said that remains a far cry from the 400,000 passengers who used the airport when the terminal opened in the early 1970s.

“We didn’t even need a queuing area then,” he said.

The airport just wrapped up construction of a new road to accommodate a 15-foot extension of the terminal’s south wall bordering the ticket lobby. The nextmajor phase will begin in early January when work on extending the south lobbywall will begin, according to a terminal renovation project timeline.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 12/21/2011

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