Charlotte-Douglas Airport (CLT) Expansion

[Miesian Corners]

I took uptown living's advice and emailed the mayor and the airport (and attached the photos). I got this response from Kay Lamont, the airport's communications director, within five hours of sending:

We are in receipt of your email (below) sent to Mayor McCrory regarding some maintenance issues you noted specifically about the Charlotte Airport.

We are aware of the condition of our FIDS monitors and are currently working with our vendor, ComNet, to change them out with LCD monitors...

Guess he does read his email...

Edited January 22, 2007 by Miesian Corners

[uptownliving]

Well the official numbers are now in for 2006 and CLT was knocking on the door of 30M passengers. 29,693,949 passengers to be exact, came and went through CLT in 2006 to set a new record. That is a 5% increase in passengers over 2005 which outperformed the national passenger numbers that stayed flat for 2006.

Other Airports 2006 Passenger Numbers:

CLT: 29,693,949

RDU: 9,407,697

GSO: 2,191,656

ILM: 640,653

[Miesian Corners]

The carpeting on B Concourse has been replaced. Unfortunately (as is always the case at Charlotte/Douglas), no interior designers were asked what would actually look good. It's hideous. While I am glad they finally replaced the filthy dirty carpeting that was installed over seven years ago, I can't help but wonder why Jerry Orr always manages to upfit the terminal with ugly and outdated materials (and why they ALWAYS have to be burgundy/purple)? There must have been a sale at the Dalton Carpet Outlet.

Update: the exposed plywood (that was once covered by black formica) that holds the housing for the FIDS monitors at the C-Con checkpoint has been repaired to typical CLT standards--they painted it black. Again, while better than what it was previously, Mr Orr just can't seem to do anything first class. The last time I saw poor quality plywood painted black inside a building, it was in a bar uptown that never sees the light of day.

Edited February 7, 2007 by Miesian Corners

[uptownliving]

LOL, yeah CLT won't win any interior design awards that is for sure. For the record they got the carpet from Bonitz Flooring Group and the carpet is a product of Milliken & Company.

Regarding the exposed plywood painted black, my guess is they will be tearing out all that plywood along with the FIDS monitors later this year anyways when they replace them with LCD monitors, so to them it didn't make sense to spend money repairing the laminate to its original state. Regardless what they did was a cheap fix and certainly won't make a good impression to visitors that come here for the first time.

Hopefully they will do a better job with the new LCD monitors.

Edited February 7, 2007 by uptownliving

[Ryepow]

That's too bad that the new carpet doesn't look good. If it's possible to post a few pictures of some of these changes taking place next time anyone is at the airport, that would be great.

[monsoon]

(and why they ALWAYS have to be burgundy/purple)?

They apparently have not realized the Hornets don't play ball in Charlotte anymore. When that fashion designer Alexander Julian picked Purple and Teal for the Hornet's Jerseys, it set off a trend frenzy in this town of trendy designs and I think every public building in Charlotte took on this motif or colors very close to it as it sound like this new carpet might be.

I've always wondered how Jerry Orr has managed to hold that job for so long.

[davidals]

Not necessarily Charlotte-pertinent, but US Airways has applied to be allowed to offer nonstop service to China, from and to cities as of yet unspecified. There's a federal plan to up the number of weekly flights to China, and United is now flying a non-stop Beijing-Washington route.

The US Air application seems to be competing with a similar application from Delta, for an Atlanta-Shanghai route:

http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/541621.html

Way, way too early to know if there will be NC effects here, but in the best-case scenario I think it could be a great thing for the state. I doubt any single NC metro could support such a route (I doubt Atlanta could as well), but collectively I think NC could.

[Delta_USAir]

Deleted! Please read the rules, you can't post news articles on this site.

Edited February 11, 2007 by metro.m

[uptownliving]

Not necessarily Charlotte-pertinent, but US Airways has applied to be allowed to offer nonstop service to China, from and to cities as of yet unspecified. There's a federal plan to up the number of weekly flights to China, and United is now flying a non-stop Beijing-Washington route.

The US Air application seems to be competing with a similar application from Delta, for an Atlanta-Shanghai route:

http://www.newsobserver.com/104/story/541621.html

Way, way too early to know if there will be NC effects here, but in the best-case scenario I think it could be a great thing for the state. I doubt any single NC metro could support such a route (I doubt Atlanta could as well), but collectively I think NC could.

Yeah I think that CLT getting that China flight is a far out possibility...but BofA does have a 9% stake in China Construction Bank, and Lenovo's HQ is in RTP...so who knows.

[uptownliving]

In today's Observer Jerry Orr revealed a plan to consolidate the rental car facilities as well as expand the ticketing area at the same time. In this plan they would:

- Tear down the current Hourly Parking Decks.

- Build new Hourly Parking Decks with the Rental Cars on the first level.

- Bring the Ticketing Hall 25 ft out towards the parking decks.

- Increase the size of the ticketing and security checkpoint areas.

- Eliminate the down escalators by security and replace them with new escalators in ticketing area.

I think all of this is a great idea and they should start on it immediately. I have used a couple airports that have consolidated rental car facilities and it makes getting to them and returning them really easy and efficeint. No more having to wait for a shuttle to the rental car.

This could also present an opportunity for them to improve the architecture of the airport's front door with something more architecturally stimulatiing than the current white box.

In addition this would open up the current rental car area for the future International Terminal.

Edited February 21, 2007 by uptownliving

[dubone]

I definitely like airports where the rental facilities are in decks all together. I also like airports where you can walk to the rental car facility. It will be a bit of a trade off, though, because for what you don't have in shuttles for rental cars, you will have for shuttles to parking facilities. Parking facilities, however, will require shuttles to distribute people, while the current rental facilities just require them to be dropped to a single point.

Still, the expansion of ticketing and security areas will be a very good thing for the airport.

It would be bonus if the visible front of the airport could get a more interesting facade with this expansion, but the usability improvements will be the most important.

[Miesian Corners]

I spoke with Airport Engineering last week. Signage replacement has begun on A&B concourses. Ticketing, C Concourse and exterior curbside signs will follow in April. Restroom rehabs will take much longer (she couldn't explain why the design phase of this has taken over a year), with reconstruction of the B Con cans beginning in late summer/early fall. The WiFi system for the entire terminal complex (all concourses, baggage claim and ticketing) is completed and is in testing mode. It should be fully operational by the first week of March.

[uptownliving]

The first contract for the construction of the 3rd Parallel Runway was approved tonight by the City Council. A $43.6M contract was awarded to ES Wagner to clear 640 acres of land, install drainage pipes and place approximately 9 million cubic yards of earthwork for the runway, related taxiways and the required relocation of several roads. They should be completed with this work in the first half of 2009.

The interesting thing is that this contract bid came in under budget and the next closest bid was nearly twice what ES Wagner bid. There was some talk that this might be too good to be true and the City Manager said that it is "one to watch." Both the Aviation Director and City Attorney looked over the bid and felt that ES Wagner was capable of providing this work for the price they quoted. Lets all hope thats the case.

[nowensone]

I've wondered about these low bid situations, what is the penalty to ES Wagner for going over budget? Going over on a proposal seems to be the norm, with little other penalty than a hit to public image, but if everyone else is doing it then it can't be that bad. Or is always going over budget on govt. contracts just the perception, and not actually common?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

Where are they putting this new runway? On the Western edge?

[uptownliving]

Where are they putting this new runway? On the Western edge?

Yes it will run parallel to 485.

[uptownliving]

I've wondered about these low bid situations, what is the penalty to ES Wagner for going over budget? Going over on a proposal seems to be the norm, with little other penalty than a hit to public image, but if everyone else is doing it then it can't be that bad. Or is always going over budget on govt. contracts just the perception, and not actually common?

If it is something that they are clearly responsible for in the contract then ES Wagner will have to eat the costs...if it was something unforeseen then usually a Change Order is negotitated, created, and then approved by City Council.

[moving uptown]

I've wondered about these low bid situations, what is the penalty to ES Wagner for going over budget? Going over on a proposal seems to be the norm, with little other penalty than a hit to public image, but if everyone else is doing it then it can't be that bad. Or is always going over budget on govt. contracts just the perception, and not actually common?

in one of the charlotte.com articles it states $10,000 fine/day

[uptownliving]

in one of the charlotte.com articles it states $10,000 fine/day

Correct, the contractor will have 840 days to complete this project. If they miss the deadline then they will owe the City $10,000 day and that has no cap on it. Conversely if they get the project done early then they will get a $10,000 per day bonus from the City that has a cap of $2.5M

[nowensone]

That is an inventive and responsible/sensible way to work out a contract, I feel a little foolish saying that if in fact it is the standard method, but would be counterintuitive to observation of most road projects, for example, that are late and overbudget, and have quality control issues.

[atlrvr]

Hooray, JetBlue will begin non-stop service Boston-Charlotte starting May 1st!!!!! I've flown them before, connecting at JFK, and would definetly fly them over USAirways if the price difference is bigger than $50 or so.

[uptownliving]

Pretty good find there atlrvr...beating jetBlue at their own announcement.

Any added service jetBlue can provide to Charlotte is only good news. Bring it on.

[Version70-8]

This may be posted somewhere else already but I just saw this info and was impressed so I thought I would share. Anyway, (CLT) moved up to #10 on the list of the busiest U.S. airports for 2006. The airport in Philly was at #9 with a mere 5,000+/- more than Charlotte.

[Miesian Corners]

US will introduce non-stop A320 service to Portland, OR (PDX) on May 28. Leaves CLT at 1930 arrives PDX at 2203. Hopefully the kiosks will be operational by then.

[uptownliving]

That's good news and the first time we have had a nonstop to Portland, OR. It looks like this flight is set to fly only during the summer months. Hopefully it will do well enough for them to extend the schedule to year round. This will also be a good business flight for Freightliner and Nike who have facilities/HQ in both places.