miami may close concourse A

[FA Mikey]

story here

North Terminal's Concourse A is a showcase for Miami International Airport -- a relaxing, modern building with high ceilings and terrazzo floors.

But MIA may close Concourse A's 15 gates next year temporarily to speed up construction of the rest of North Terminal. MIA hopes giving contractors unfettered access to Concourse A will save two years and $200 million.

The North Terminal has been mired in delays and cost overruns, and the airport is desperate to finish it. So desperate it's willing to banish American Airlines and two airlines to older parts of the airport. The concourse handles more than 10 percent of MIA's traffic annually.

''Does it hurt? Yeah. If I had to describe this, I'd say it's like a military operation,'' said Bruce Drum, MIA's deputy director of operations.

Half of North Terminal -- concourses C and D -- will remain open.

But the next big phase is completing the tear down of B concourse and starting the tear down of C so they can do the fill in and connect A to old D making it a single unit.

I have to say if Miami has a plan to speed things up by two years. Add 3 to five to the total time it will take.

 

[FWAAA]

So what you're promising is that the MIA terminal will be finished by 2016, right?

 

[MAH4546]

Great idea, even though it will be unfortunate to have the place closed. BA won't be happy that their Terrace Lounge will have to close, and AA won't be happy to close an Admiral's Club, but it will really speed things up. AA really screwed up this project and now MIA is blamed for the mess. Pretty unfortunate that MIA is getting all the credit for AA's screw up.

 

[FA Mikey]

Reading time and again about each Miami airport commission no bid and/or local bid contracts for various airport projects. It safe to say, they could have screwed it the same or worse.

 

[MAH4546]

Reading time and again about each Miami airport commission no bid and/or local bid contracts for various airport projects. It safe to say, they could have screwed it the same or worse.

MIA isn't perfect, of course they could have, and like would.

Though the fact remains that AA was in charge of North, and MIA was in charge of South.

North - Nearly $1B over budget, three years late.

South - Met the $800M budget, six months late due to a last minute change to a more advanced fibre optics network.

You can't ignore that gleaming fact that shows MIA, as corrupt as they really are, can run a project on time.

Of course, many of the problems with the North Concourse arise from the fact that it was basiclly a ground-up construction being built from a current structure that is currently operating. That made the project more difficult, and both AA and MIA underestimated how difficult such an undertaking is.

 

[1AA]

Word out is that when concourse A was built American said it needed the tram system to run to Concourse A. Dade county did not want to build it to support a tram system. Bickering back and forth about who would pay for the additonal cost of having a tram it ended up the way it is today. Now they need to close the fairly new concourse A to reinforce the structure to support the tram system. This is what AA wanted in the first place but Dade county went ahead and did it their way. More wasted money and time. Now we all pay the price, employees and passengers.

 

[JFK777]

ITS the BANANA REPUBLIC politics of Dade County. AA's new terminal 8 at JFK doesn't have any over budget or political problems.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

Not a bit surprised. Welcome to MIA the other third world country.
Where nothing seems to go right or left for that matter

 

[eolesen]

Had MIA agreed to short term pain of closing down more than one concourse at a time, this project would have been done years ago. Instead, they required AA to plan this as overlay construction, which is far more complicated.

As already noted, Terminal 8 at JFK was built in half the time because it was new construction for the most part. AA took the pain and restraining growth during the time they were limited on gates.

But I'll disagree about the budget -- JFK's terminal rent now exceeds DFW's I believe, and the project only came un under the original budget because 30% of the gate space and 50% of the check-in lobby and bagroom were de-scoped.

That also accellerated the occupancy date pretty significantly, so it's not exactly a fair comparison against MIA.

 

[TIME FOR CHANGE]

JFK's terminal rent now exceeds DFW's

All the rent in NYC exceeds DFW's
Ask the people who try to live there on what AA pays

 

[MAH4546]

Had MIA agreed to short term pain of closing down more than one concourse at a time, this project would have been done years ago. Instead, they required AA to plan this as overlay construction, which is far more complicated.

AA's idea was to construct a new terminal the way it has been built. MIA wanted to build AA's new terminal from the ground up, destroying F and G, where F/G/H/J now sit. MIA never wanted it the way it is being done.

MIA's fault was that they are corrupt enough to let AA have as much say as they did, after they were poorly swayed by the lobbyist that AA paid mega bucks for. AA is 90% to blame.

 

[MCI transplant]

<_< ---- Hey aafsc! Will this be effecting you? I hate to see a good buddy have to go to somewhere like New York City!!!! That's a exTWA 25% Station I do believe?

 

[aafsc]

Thanks for your concern but my seniority here in MIA is more than adequate.

 

[twaokc]

<_< ---- Hey aafsc! Will this be effecting you? I hate to see a good buddy have to go to somewhere like New York City!!!! That's a exTWA 25% Station I do believe?

MCI transplant,

You should not throw things like to to our little BUDDY, aafsc. It would kill him to be junior to an exTWA person.
You really should lay off him.

 

[MCI transplant]

MCI transplant,

You should not throw things like to to our little BUDDY, aafsc. It would kill him to be junior to an exTWA person.
You really should lay off him.

:unsure:---- Yea! I guess your right!