Vermont officials held a groundbreaking, of sorts, Thursday morning for a multimillion dollar expansion of the Burlington International Airport terminal.
The $14.5 million Terminal Integration Project will expand the airport’s terminal building by 26,240 square feet. It will consolidate security checkpoints and create a more direct route between passenger concourses. Acting Aviation Director Nic Longo says the project is incredibly important to the success of the airport’s future by enhancing security, functionality and passenger comfort.
“This first floor of the building that’s where the new TSA security checkpoint will be located. All passengers will go through that facility. The second floor is new seating areas, new passenger potential amenities upstairs and a potential new access point to aircraft that are parked outside." Longo continues, "The very future is to actually open up our apron a little bit more and expanding our building to accommodate larger aircraft, which is what we’re seeing in the industry. Our focus is to have the most flexibility with the facility. A larger facility for TSA, larger hold rooms for passengers to be more comfortable and a larger facility to accommodate all sizes of aircraft.”
Democratic U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, the pro tem and chair of the Appropriations Committee, secured the FAA Airport Improvement Grant for the project.
“This is a new phase of improved travel experience. It’ll increase the destinations. An improvement in the area of security. Most people worry about going through security, this is going to be a lot easier. Now as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee I’ve tried to make sure that Burlington had a seat at the table," says Senator Leahy. "For a number of years investing in terminals for an airport the size of Burlington International was not a priority FAA and so we were able to secure nearly $15 million to make this project a reality.”
Democratic Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger noted that the project has been designed so that as the airport grows the terminal can be easily expanded.
“The airport is a hub of commerce bringing visitors to the city and region connecting our economy here in Chittenden County to national and global businesses. And the airport is also increasingly a home to many local innovative businesses. The investment in this Terminal Integration project will make the airport here safer, easier to navigate and even more welcoming to visitors.”
Construction on the terminal expansion is in progress so rather than a shovels in the dirt groundbreaking, officials signed a steel beam that will eventually be lifted by crane to the top of the structure.
The formal groundbreaking had twice been postponed, most recently during deliberations over the employment fate of then-Aviation Director Gene Richards.
Construction is expected to be complete in the fall of 2022.
