KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City International Airport’s new terminal remains on time and on budget, officials told city leaders at a council meeting Thursday.
The new $1.5 billion, 1 million-square-foot terminal passed its halfway point of construction in April and since then some significant milestones have been reached.
One of the biggest and most significant is the completion of the elevated roadway that separates departures from arrivals, said Justin Meyer, deputy director of aviation for the city, in an interview Friday. That’s the route people will take to drop off passengers.
“We’ve got one rendering of what the drive up will look like,” he said. “Now that the roadway is complete and the glass is starting to be installed on that kind of large base of the building, that one rendering is starting to come to life and that’s really neat to see.”
The new terminal is expected to open March 3, 2023.
Other major milestones include work on the parking garage, which is about 60% completed, as well as the beginning of the installation of elevators and escalators and baggage handling system. The 634-foot moving walkways that will take passengers from to the terminal to the two concourses is being installed.
Glass has also started to be installed on the “headhouse” where ticketing and security points will be located in the new terminal. Crews have prepared the Missouri-sourced limestone to be hung on the back wall behind the ticketing counters. Air conditioning has been installed and cooled air is being blown to different parts of the concourses.
Crews are working on various mock-ups for such things as the restrooms so that they can make changes to ensure the final design is exactly what is wanted.
“If there’s any necessary changes to materials or fixture locations or anything, we have the ability to do that after seeing it as one mock-up rather than doing all of the bathrooms at the same time and then realizing that the towel dispenser are too close to the counter or something like that,” Meyer said. “That’s a lesson learned from visits to a few other terminals that have opened recently.”
Upcoming milestones include making the new terminal watertight, which is expected to be completed soon. That will allow interior work on the inside of the terminal no matter what the weather is like. The instillation of the terrazzo flooring is also expected to begin soon.
Terry Cassidy, whom the city contracted to look out for its interests on the airport project, told council members that that the project remains on budget. To date, nearly $807 million has been invoiced, leaving nearly $700 million left in the program balance.
“That’s right where we’re supposed to be,” Meyer said.
Concessions proposals were due in June and the interested parties presented their proposals earlier this week, Meyer said. There will be deliberation and debate over the next few weeks before a recommendation will made to the city council.
Meyer said they are hearing from a lot of passengers who haven’t been to the airport in over a year.
“We were barely out of the ground in the summer of 2020 and now we’ve got a building,” Meyer said. “It’s enjoyable for those of us on the project that have been seeing it every day to hear the amazement the from infrequent travelers that are seeing it for the first time in a year or more.”
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