note BD quote ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2002/03/27/f= inancial1129EST0087.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, March 27, 2002 (AP) Airports in the throes of change _ Altered security procedures, screening d= evices require new designs for terminals NICOLE HARRIS, The Wall Street Journal (03-27) 08:29 PST (AP) -- Before Sept. 11, the award-winning airport serving Orlando, Fla., had an airy minimall. Airy no more, it is now jammed with passengers waiting their turn at the metal detectors. In another Florida city, Fort Lauderdale, airport planners are considering moving ticketing and check-in to the ground level where the floors may be strong enough to handle heavy baggage-screening equipment. And in Louisville, Ky., architects are proposing a separate building to house the airport's new explosive-detection devices. The terrorist attacks have already transformed American air travel. Now, something else is about to change: airport design. "We've had to reinvent the airport overnight," says Bruce Drum, Miami International Airport's assistant aviation director for operations. "The new reality is being written as we go along." Airport officials say one of their top concerns is how to revamp their facilities to make room for new, more extensive security procedures and still keep passengers moving through quickly. Immediate fixes include covering glass with blast-resistant materials as well as expanding security checkpoint areas in a bid to shorten lines. More-challenging modifications are being driven by an end-of-the-year government deadline to screen all baggage for bombs by new X-ray scanners -- minivan-size machines that demand extra-strong flooring. "The whole profile of how passengers use space is different now," says R= on Steinert, who runs the aviation practice for Gensler, a global design and consulting firm based in San Francisco. For example, many passengers now arrive hours early to clear security. "That's a lot of people for a lot longer time. How are you going to provide seating for them?" Any changes to airport design can quickly ripple through the facility. If directors shift around airport concessions to make more space for new security screening devices, they risk harming one of their biggest revenue sources. Already, some airport stores and restaurants located in areas that travelers pass through before reaching security checkpoints have asked airports for rent relief on the ground that passengers don't want to stop until after they clear security. Designers also must strike a balance between security and customer service. "We still have to maintain a high level of convenience," says Bill Jennings, executive director of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority. The airport is working to expand its checkpoint areas to shorten the lines that clog the terminal's minimall during peak periods. The demands for rethinking airport space come at the worst possible time: Airports are expected to lose $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue due to a decrease in traffic this year, according to Airports Council International-North America, a Washington, D.C., group that represents airport operators. At the same time, airports will spend at least $1 billion over the next year meeting new security requirements, a figure that doesn't include costs of reconfiguring their facilities and purchasing new equipment. The Transportation Security Administration, the new federal agency in charge of airport security, is supposed to pay for the new equipment, but it's not clear who will pay for any needed renovations. Crucial questions still loom, airport officials and architects say, as the agency scrambles to get up to speed. For example, should the new security machines be located before ticketing and check-in areas or after? Do passengers need to be present when the bags go through the machine? "Airport directors are facing a revolution in their business -- and they've only gotten about 50 percent of the information they need to cope," says Stephen Van Beek, senior vice president of policy at Airports Council International. At the same time, airport operators hope the agency will give them flexibility to adapt any guidelines to their specific needs. Paul Turk, a spokesman for the TSA, says the agency is consulting with airports. "This is a work in progress," he says, "and there are still decisions to be made." Among them: how airport ticketing and check-in areas can accommodate new security devices and procedures. Ticket counters that take up lots of space might be replaced by automated check-in kiosks, says Stephen Martin, a principal at Leigh Fisher & Associates, a design consulting firm in San Mateo, Calif. "Those ticket counters are occupying vital space that the TSA may find most appealing (for security devices), and airlines wouldn't mind because it will cut down on staffing," Mr. Martin says. Some airports aren't waiting for the agency to hand down guidelines. They are working with architects and consultants to devise possible scenarios of how new security devices would fit in with current baggage systems and the flow of passengers.Officials at Los Angeles International Airport, for instance, estimate that the airport could need more than 100 of the new explosive-detection devices to scan the 150,000 bags its airlines handle daily. Suddenly reconfiguring space to meet new security guidelines is a daunti= ng task, says Kim Day, the airport's deputy director of project and facilities development. This month, the airport signed on with Gensler architects and others to conduct a 60-day study of where best to put the devices. "We're not going to wait around until the TSA tells us what to do," she says. At Miami International Airport, long-planned designs for two new termina= ls are being revamped to focus on security issues. Inside the terminals, new plans call for barriers that can be put in place by alarm to segregate concourses in the event of a security breach. "We would be able to close off the area and still keep other parts of the airport functioning," says Nelson Oramas, manager of security infrastructure at Miami International. Meanwhile, security at airfield access gates used by service vehicles entering the airport will be beefed up with closed-circuit cameras and computerized vehicle-identification systems. Plans also include widening the lanes used to enter the airfield so security personnel can pull over delivery trucks for more-extensive searches. But in Miami's 43-year-old terminals, changes are much harder to make. M= r. Oramas says the airport might have to use office space currently allocated to airlines and other tenants to make room for new baggage-screening equipment as well as to shore up floors for the devices. "We're not ruling anything out," he says. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 AP