Why no Philadelphia Expansion?

[BoeingBoy]

My Bad. Here is the Philly.com article dated May 6, 2010. Hope this helps.

PHL Expansion Plans!

Just looking at the drawings of the before and after, looks like B/C will be modified, and new terminal space added to the north on the west side of 17/35 with the Express terminal relocated to the east side of 17/35. A third parallel runway will run right through where the UPS building now, extended into what's now the river on each end.

Jim

 

[zethya]

I didn't think there was going to be a huge change with the terminals. I know the plan was to move the express terminal to the other side of 17/35 but they will build the new one before doing anything to the old one. What are they doing to the others?

HUH??

The FAA Selected Philadelphia Capacity Enhancement Plan "A" ($5.2B).

To see a descrption of this Plan go here:
http://www.phl-cep-eis.com/
Click on DOCUMENTS and then the pdf Link "Appendix E - General Conformity Determination". Scroll down to Part 4 (Page 35) to see the Diagram and General Descriptions of the Plan.

In summary, several existing runways will be extended and new ones added. The International Facilities (Term "A") will remain as is - except for periodic upgrades for connectivity. Terminals B,C,D,E and F will be rebuilt in place. A new Terminal G will be built. A new offset Commuter Terminal will be built. Existing Parking Garages will be expanded to add 3600 new spaces. All terminals, the parking garages, and the city train will all be connected by a new people mover. A new Ground Transportation Facility will be built which will be a centralized collection point for all modes of inter and intra airport transportation, including rental car facilities - and will include a new 4500 space car parking Garage. The city wants to start construction by mid 2011.

 

[cynic]

HUH??

The FAA Selected Philadelphia Capacity Enhancement Plan "A" ($5.2B).

To see a descrption of this Plan go here:
http://www.phl-cep-eis.com/
Click on DOCUMENTS and then the pdf Link "Appendix E - General Conformity Determination". Scroll down to Part 4 (Page 35) to see the Diagram and General Descriptions of the Plan.

In summary, several existing runways will be extended and new ones added. The International Facilities (Term "A") will remain as is - except for periodic upgrades for connectivity. Terminals B,C,D,E and F will be rebuilt in place. A new Terminal G will be built. A new offset Commuter Terminal will be built. Existing Parking Garages will be expanded to add 3600 new spaces. All terminals, the parking garages, and the city train will all be connected by a new people mover. A new Ground Transportation Facility will be built which will be a centralized collection point for all modes of inter and intra airport transportation, including rental car facilities - and will include a new 4500 space car parking Garage. The city wants to start construction by mid 2011.

Sorry, didn't make it to page 35 of part 4 of appendix E. I'll admit to being too lazy.

So Express moves to the other side of 17/35, they put a new terminal for mainline aircraft where F is now. As long as they rebuild one terminal at a time, they can use the new F terminal to make up for the lost gates while each terminal is rebuilt. Build G, move express there. Build a new F, move E there. Rebuild E, move D there. Rebuild D, move C there. The only issue would be the A east gates, but that isn't on your list.

 

[BoeingBoy]

It wouldn't be quite that simple because both currently and in the plan all concourses are not the same size so it's not going to be a case of moving everyone in D to E or whatever, although hopefully the airport and architects have planned for the long transition phase. First, there will be a completely new Express terminal on the east side of 17/35, into which Express could move before reconstruction started on the current and new concourses. After tearing the current F down, a new F & G-Con could be built - F will be slightly north of the current F with G to the north of that. E could move into F/G then be demolished (E is also being moved slightly) but with no terminal and just a corridor connecting F/G to the end of the terminal where E is being demolished/rebuilt it could cause a passenger bottleneck. After E is completed, D could be demolished and relocated, but it appears that the new E/F/G won't have as many gates as the current D/E, so there could be a shortage of gates till D is completed. At any rate, once D is complete, C would be demolished and relocated, but again D may not have enough open gates to replace all those on C in the interim. Once C is completed, B could be rebuilt, but with a loss of gates at the end (though more than offset by the total gates in C/D/E/F/G).

In short, there would definitely be musical chairs of particular airline's gates during the entire construction period and US could end up using B/C and part of D when it's all complete (assuming that the A's remain unaffected for international/some domestic the whole time).

Jim

 

[BuffaloJoe]

It wouldn't be quite that simple because both currently and in the plan all concourses are not the same size so it's not going to be a case of moving everyone in D to E or whatever, although hopefully the airport and architects have planned for the long transition phase. First, there will be a completely new Express terminal on the east side of 17/35, into which Express could move before reconstruction started on the current and new concourses. After tearing the current F down, a new F & G-Con could be built - F will be slightly north of the current F with G to the north of that. E could move into F/G then be demolished (E is also being moved slightly) but with no terminal and just a corridor connecting F/G to the end of the terminal where E is being demolished/rebuilt it could cause a passenger bottleneck. After E is completed, D could be demolished and relocated, but it appears that the new E/F/G won't have as many gates as the current D/E, so there could be a shortage of gates till D is completed. At any rate, once D is complete, C would be demolished and relocated, but again D may not have enough open gates to replace all those on C in the interim. Once C is completed, B could be rebuilt, but with a loss of gates at the end (though more than offset by the total gates in C/D/E/F/G).

In short, there would definitely be musical chairs of particular airline's gates during the entire construction period and US could end up using B/C and part of D when it's all complete (assuming that the A's remain unaffected for international/some domestic the whole time).

Jim

Jim
Terminal G could be built first and when they get to the next term. they can do the musical gate thing, just that Term. G won't be a Commuter Terminal till all are complete. Does that make any sense? I am confusing myself( Not hard to do these days). LOL!

 

[BoeingBoy]

Express is scheduled to have it's own terminal on the other side of 17/35 from the current terminal (just called "Commuter Terminal" in the drawing). G should not be used for Express (although another airline's express ops might operate from a gate at that airline's portion of the "mainline" concourses as now).

So assuming the same naming convention as now, A/A-East will be international with some domestic as now (they appear to be unchanged), B-G will be mainline, and then there'll be the separate, new Commuter terminal which replaces F-Con.

It really is easier if you look at the drawings and you can see the changes. The 1st page of the pdf is an aerial shot of the current configuration while page 2 is the drawing of the plan that the FAA prefers - alternative A.

It appears that they could build the new G-con concurrently with the new Commuter terminal, then when F-con is empty demolish it to build the new F-Con. Part of the problem is that the new E/F/G-cons appear to be the smallest concourses of the completed design so I'm not sure they would hold everyone in the current D/E-cons so that D could be demolished without losing gates. The same problem could exist when B/C are redone, so there could be times during construction where there would be fewer and not more gates available although when completed there would be 2 additional "mainline" concourses (F/G) offering more gates.

Jim