Airport terminal construction timeline remains undefined

Last summer, the Airport Advisory Board predicted the new terminal at Columbia Regional Airport could be finished by 2023 or later, but airport officials on Wednesday said at this time, they can’t make any timeline predictions.

“There’s a lot of moving parts,” said airport manager Mike Parks.

Those parts include finishing up projects involved in the airport’s capital improvement plan, such as runway improvements, and a rigorous consultant process to determine specifics about the new terminal when it comes to design.

“We have to look at what the needs are 10, 20, 30 years from now,” Parks said. “We’ve had this terminal for 50 years and we want to make sure that all the decisions that we make today are decisions that are going to make a positive impact 20, 30, 40 years from now.”

Parks confirmed Wednesday that some planned improvement projects must be finished before the Federal Aviation Administration can make a final decision about providing federal funds for the airport.

A main project will be repairs to the primary runway, which will start next April and mean a 75-day closure of the runway.

Airport officials do have a project planned for 2020, where they will realign Route H, but Parks said that didn’t mean the federal government’s decision would have to be pushed back, because there are several things running simultaneously.

“Behind the scenes” work is also causing the terminal construction start date to be up in the air, he said.

“By behind the scenes, I mean paperwork, discussion and meetings,” Park said. “We’re making meetings with the FAA, consultants and all our partners in the community to make sure we’re moving as quickly as we can while making sure we’re making the right decisions as well.”

In the meantime, airport operations continue to expand. TSA is in the process of hiring additional personnel that will man the second security line that has opened up to accommodate the passengers.

“Through the end of August, we’ve had an average about 326 people a day go through the security lane,” said Parks. “Putting that in perspective, if you go back 10 years ago, we had 13 people a day go through the security screening.”