Very spic and span it is too, and so it should be for a terminal that was supposed to cost $25 million and ended up costing Monroe County $40 million. The new terminal was supposed to be named for the McCoy family but the county commissioner so named was voted out of office in the last round of elections and there have been rumblings of discontent over his time in office, so the naming of the terminal has been delayed, perhaps terminally...
On the approach to the airport the new terminal is now the departure building, up the ramp which collapsed during construction. That piece of the shoddy contract killed a Guatemalan worker Carlos Humberto Cifuentes Saenz and more than one caller to the Citizens Voice suggested the terminal be named for him. No luck on that one.
The new terminal is a massive expanse of cement with a splendid view of the control tower:
The upstairs parking lot, most convenient to the terminal is for employees whose vehicles sit in the roasting sun. I'd rather park in the shade downstairs while I was inside working. In the distance the East Martello Tower:
The employees at the airport I spoke to before the new terminal was built were looking forward to it as a relief from the cramped quarters in the musty old airport building. However for some people, the more intrepid travelers not afraid to go through security checks outdoors, the old building was rather more welcoming to the Conch Republic. It serves as the arrivals building:
And there is still room to sit outdoors to wait for transport:
The main parking area is underneath the terminal, more massive expanses of concrete:
Whence one takes the stairs, or rides the (currently) operational elevator to the sterile Anywhere USA departure area upstairs:
The $40 million dollar contract apparently didn't include signage or trash cans according to an article in the paper so the county had to pony up for those too, at the last minute as they only noticed when the place had been opened. One can only be delighted the former county administrator and his sidekicks on the commission are all history. The cost did include outdoor fans which rotate at public expense at all hours apparently:
The iconic Conch Flyer bar and restaurant had to be moved from its crusty old location overlooking the runway and now it occupies a vast spacious area upstairs at the departure terminal. Not exactly the retreat it once was:
It's a nice clean terminal with solar filtering glass showing off that concrete acreage:
And travelers now get to walk through a tube impervious to weather to get to their planes, though they will still have to go outdoors to get on the plane itself:
I got on the Bonneville and took a spin, up one side, down the other, a tip of the hat to the late Carlos Saenz as I went:
And at the bottom of the ramp a left turn leads to South Roosevelt and the Straits of Florida beyond it:
And ninety miles beyond that as we know so well, lies Cuba, all of a thirty minute flight from here.
6 comments:
I like airports where you have to walk across the tarmac and up steps to board your 'plane. Reminiscent of those '40s films like Casablanca. Humberside "International" Airport is like that in the UK.
Conchscooter:
If only we had an airport here with tarmac boarding. Our airport is designed with those bording chutes which connect directly to the doorway of the plane. You step over a threshold into the seating area, it's all so hygenic. I remember the old days when you had to walk up the staircase to board.
This airport doesn't have that friendly inviting appearance as concrete is such a cold material. Functional and utilitarian
bobskoot: wet coast scootin
Dear Sir:
Thank you for posting these great pictures of the new airport. All it needs to finish off the ambiance it so generously oozes is barbed wire fences and guard towers.
The best airport in the world use to be in Burlington, Vermont. You could park 200 feet from the gate and the snack stand had an honor basket on the counter for the money. In the interst of public security, that has now been changed to a paradignm of public inconvenience.
It is intersting to note that every security agency in the world recommends that parking not be placed under the terminals for obvious reasons. As soon as these recommendations were known, Philly International opened with parking under the terminals. This facility is in good company, God bless the DHS and the TSA.
Fondest regards,
Riepe
Twisted Roads
I never cease to be amazed at how such a simple task as expanding a footprint enough to include a place to sit and access to bathrooms can be bloated into such an expensive undertaking. And when all is said and done, no signage or trash cans. For 40 million, I think we could have thrown in a trash can or two.
Somewhere someone made a nice penny off of all of this and forced to guess, I'd point to the politicians.
In any event, I look forward to getting to walk thru and look it all over at some point in the not to distant future.
-Peace
Conchscooter:
check out this link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Convention_Centre
your cost over run from $25M to $40M is mere coconuts (or is that peanuts?) as compared to the costs of our new Vancouver Convention Centre which was originally budgeted for $495M and ended up costing $885M. I'll have to check and see if that includes signage and garbage cans
We also have a $60M cost over run for the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter games.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/06/bc-olympic-village-overrun.html
soon we are going to be as broke as California
bobskoot: wet coast scootin
bobskoot: We haven't even started on our cost over run for the 2012 Olympic Games.
We're going to be as broke as Iceland.
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