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Better leave earlier to get to the airport

A major reconfiguration of the access roads to and from Tampa International will slow traffic, but there will be more parking soon.

By JEAN HELLER
Published October 7, 2005

TAMPA - A major road project has landed on the only route in and out of Tampa International Airport.

It shifts into full gear in time for the busy winter holidays, and could slow the trip along the George Bean Parkway for the next 18 months.

The board of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority was told Thursday how much better traffic will flow when the Florida Department of Transportation is finished in April 2007. Board members winced but accepted the premise.

But one level down in the ticketing area of the landside terminal, the promise of smoother traffic didn't assuage Mary Ripley of Tampa, who says she usually flies out of town for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"Wake me when it's done," Ripley said while waiting at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter. "First we have to get to the airport two hours early to go through security. Then we have to add half an hour to find a parking place. Now we need to add another half hour to negotiate road construction. I'll drive, thanks."

Finding parking should be easier starting this holiday season. The first phase of the new economy garage opens Nov. 8 with 3,600 new spaces for the year-end rush. When phase two is completed in the summer, the garage will add another 1,400 spaces.

A cell phone lot, where motorists may park for free while waiting to pick up incoming passengers, opens Nov. 14.

The next day, the airport will start getting tough with drivers who wait for pickups at curbside baggage claim areas. After five minutes, drivers will be directed to the cell phone lot or to the short-term and long-term parking garages, where the first hour will be free. Normally the first hour in either garage would cost $1.25.

Authority board member Al Austin was clearly uncomfortable with the timing of the construction, which the airport cannot control.

"We're going to be starting a public awareness program to get people to use the new garage at the same time as construction picks up," Austin said. "How's that going to work out?"

Jim Jones, the authority's director of engineering and environment, said the airport would make extensive use of temporary electronic signs to direct motorists. Jones also said there would be no lane closures for construction between 5 a.m. and 11 p.m., normal airport operation hours.

Passengers arriving for very early flights, however, could get caught in backups from lane closures. Early mornings are among the airport's busiest times.

Although not yet disruptive, except visually, construction is already under way.

Bulldozers have felled landscaping and will take out more. Backhoes have dispatched a decorative irrigation pond in the Bean Parkway median. And Jersey barricades squeeze the traffic lanes.

The airport project is part of a larger, longer reconstruction that stretches from Interstate 275 to Memorial Highway to the Veterans Expressway and the Courtney Campbell Parkway. The full project will not be completed until April 2010 at a total cost of nearly $193-million.

Aside from easier access to the new economy garage, the cell phone lot and the post office, the airport road construction will widen the Bean Parkway from four lanes to six.

Landscaping and an irrigation pond ripped out for the improvements will be replaced.

"In it's simplest form, you're going to be able to go from the airport to the Courtney Campbell and never merge (with other traffic)," said Louis Miller, executive director of the Aviation Authority. "You can leave the airport and go to the Veterans and never merge. Coming from Tampa, you can go up Memorial to the airport and never merge.

"But that's 41/2 years away. In the interim, it's going to be difficult."

Passengers traveling for the holidays this year also can expect planes to be even more packed than they were last year.

The airline economy in general and fuel costs in particular have pushed airlines to curtail flights, which cuts the number of available seats. There were 29,666 seats available on flights out in September, compared to 31,245 in September 2001, even though that was the month of the terrorist attacks.

That's a 5.1 percent drop.

"And more cuts are expected," Miller said. "The planes are going to be packed."

[Last modified October 7, 2005, 01:49:15]