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Airport offers walkways to terminal
By JEAN HELLER © St. Petersburg Times, published July 1, 2000 TAMPA -- Passengers at Tampa International Airport who don't want to wait for the monorail from long-term parking to the terminal will have a faster alternative starting Thursday -- direct walkways between the two buildings. The board of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority decided to build the two sky bridges last year after officials noted that a lot of people who didn't want to wait for a monorail car to arrive, or were impatient about the eight stops the cars make, were using the walkways beside the rail to get to the terminal. "This is a quicker and easier way from airport parking to departure," said airport spokeswoman Brenda Geoghagan. "It's another option." The bridges, each 120 feet long, stretch from the second level of long-term parking to the third level of the landside terminal. Despite how it sounds, that is a straight and level trip. The second level of long-term parking is directly across from the third level of the terminal. The bridges, built at a cost of $2.1-million, are a part of a major renovation of the airport that has included the redesign of the third level of the terminal, the reconstruction of Airside E and plans to completely redo the baggage and ticketing levels to accommodate the airport's growth. Construction began in March, and the walkways will be open after a ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. "We expect business travelers are going to find ways to park on the second level of the garage as close to the bridges as they can," Geoghagan said. "Then, if they don't have bags to check, they can go directly across to the transfer level of the landside terminal and out to their gates. The bridges probably aren't good for families with a lot of baggage." The bridges cross over palm trees and gardens "and fountains when the water restrictions end and the city lets us turn them back on," she added. The open-air walkways, designed to resemble airplane wings, contain 14,318 linear feet of concrete.
 © St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved. 
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