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TIA adds parking, arrival waiting lot

A cell phone lot and the first phase of a remote economy garage will open Nov. 1.

By JEAN HELLER
Published September 2, 2005

TAMPA - Two months from now, two of Tampa International Airport's biggest problems will be fixed.

The first phase of the new remote economy garage will open on Nov. 1, which will give a big boost to the number of available covered parking spaces.

So will a cell phone lot, where people meeting incoming passengers can wait until the passengers call to say they're ready to be picked up. This should dramatically ease curbside congestion in the arrival areas.

In case it doesn't, TIA is in the process of hiring nine new traffic enforcement officers who will see to it that people who now wait at the curb for as long as 90 minutes are ordered to move along in five minutes or fewer.

"We can't tell them to move along now because there's no place for them to go," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority. "But that's going to change."

A capital construction program that lost a year to the economic uncertainty after Sept. 11, combined with a year of double-digit passenger growth, overwhelmed TIA's parking capacity. During peak travel times, this forced parking officials to jam cars into places that weren't legal spaces and to open grassy areas that never were intended for parking.

Starting in November, the addition of spaces and services, and new prices, are aimed at eliminating a lot of congestion and frustration.

On Nov. 1, the opening of the first phase of the remote garage will add nearly 3,600 spaces, bringing TIA's parking capacity to nearly 18,000 spaces. Currently, the remote spaces cost $7 a day with the seventh day free, capping the weekly maximum at $42. The price will remain the same, but the second day will be the freebie.

It is a move intended to encourage drivers to use the remote facilities, which also will have shorter walking distances than the two close-in garages.

The cell phone lot, south of the post office, will be free and come equipped with a flight arrivals information board. Once a vehicle gets to the curb on the arrivals level of the main terminal, there will be time only to grab passengers and baggage and go before the new parking police step in.

"But this will only be during the peak hours, early in the morning, around noon, in the evening and late at night," Miller said. "When we're not busy and there are only eight cars at the curbs, they can stay as long as they want, as long as the people stay in their cars."

As another incentive to stay off the curbs, the first hour of parking in the long-term and short-term garages will be free.

"If you can pick up or drop off passengers in an hour, you won't pay anything," Miller said.

When the second phase of the remote garage is finished next summer, it will add 1,400 spaces.

The prices for short-term and valet parking went up to $18 and $24 a day, respectively, in June. On Nov. 1, the cost of the long-term garage will go from $10 to $14 a day, another move to shift motorists to the remote facilities.

The cost of parking for a week in long-term would be $98, more than twice the $42 remote parking tab. The remote parking is the same price whether it's in the garage or on uncovered surface spaces.

Buses that run every 10 minutes will shuttle remote parking customers to the main terminal.

Miller also said on Thursday that the median of the George Bean Parkway, the road into and out of the airport, is a mess. A number of trees have been felled, and a deep pit is being dug.

It is part of the state Department of Transportation's reconstruction of several roads between Interstate 275 and the south end of the Veterans Expressway to eliminate dangerous merges and make navigation easier. When finished, the Bean Parkway will have been widened and relandscaped, and the pit will become an irrigation lake with a fountain.

John McShaffrey, DOT's spokesman for interstate construction, said the felled trees will be mulched, "our normal procedure in road projects."

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 02:15:35]