By Damian Mann
Mail Tribune
June 06, 2008
Passengers already are finding their way to the new terminal building at the Medford airport — even though it's six months away from completion.
"They want to come here," said John Gilbert, superintendent of the project with Adroit Construction Co. Inc. of Ashland. "They can't see the old terminal anymore."
From a distance, the new $35 million, 100,000-square-foot terminal looks nearly complete, fooling some passengers and dwarfing the old building that sits behind it as viewed from Biddle Road.
Even as the building takes shape, airport officials are keeping a close eye on shake-ups in the airline industry and other economic problems that could reduce the number of passengers.
Revenue bonds totaling $19.96 million are paying for much of the construction cost, and grants, ConnectOregon funds and other sources are picking up the rest of the tab. The 30-year revenue bonds will be paid off by passenger fees.
Airport Director Bern Case said that even if the passenger count were to drop by 10 percent for a short period, "We wouldn't even notice it."
The airport estimated its future passenger count conservatively when it sought the bonds, instead of basing calculations on recent record years.
But a prolonged airline slump would be a cause for worry, Case said.
"If we saw a 10 percent drop two years in a row, then we would have to adjust our budget, but we would still pay our debts," he said.
April's passenger count dropped by 1 percent, and Case expects a similar drop in May.
"We may be down for the year," he said, estimating passenger volumes might drop by about 1 percent over the entire year.
Case said he couldn't predict how long the airline industry will go through changes, but he thought it would find a way to balance high fuel costs with the right ticket price to attract sufficient numbers of passengers.
Case said the old terminal is just too small to handle the passenger volumes.
"We were violating some occupancy standards on occasions," he said. "The boarding room just wasn't making it."
By contrast, Case said the airport in North Bend is building a new terminal even though it hadn't yet outgrown its old facility.
Adroit will complete construction on the Medford terminal by December, but Case said the opening will be delayed until Jan. 11, 2009, to avoid the busy holiday season. A ribbon-cutting ceremony could be held as early as Jan. 3.
On the outside, the awnings for the new building are already up and many of the windows are in place.
Work on a new control tower will begin in about a week. When it's finished, the old tower and terminal will be demolished.
The move from the old buildings to the new facilities will have to be carefully choreographed to minimize any disruption to passengers using the airport, Gilbert said.
"The most interesting part will be switching over from that one to this one," Gilbert said, looking down on the old terminal from the roof of the new building.
In about two weeks, Adroit will begin construction of a high-security outbound baggage area to the south of the new terminal.
When passengers enter the new terminal, they'll find the ticket counters to the right. Baggage will be sent by conveyor belt to the secure building, where it will be checked before being sent to awaiting planes.
After passengers get their tickets, they will go through an expanded security check. They can then wait for their flight in the boarding area or get a bite to eat in the terminal's restaurant.
Passengers flying into Medford will find the inbound baggage system more automated, Gilbert said. "The baggage system is a large part of this project," he said.
Even though much of the outside portion of the building looks completed from a distance, windows and doors still need to be installed.
"At this point our goal is just to close it in," said Gilbert.
Even though he goes to the site almost every day, Gilbert said it recently struck him how much the terminal has changed the skyline along Biddle Road.
"Yesterday evening I really noticed how this building is sticking up," he said.
Reach reporter Damian Mann at 776-4476 or dmann@mailtribune.com.
