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Show - r'" -Jar'--' c AIRPORT EXPANSION Travelers to Salt Lake International Airport won't have to board planes in the cold and rainy weather this year. Jet height concourses have been added onto terminals as a part of the airport's multi-million dollar expansion plans. contract allowing Bountiful's Executive Air Service to sell and service private aircraft. Both Metcalf and Pelton agree there are a number of improvements im-provements which will have to be completed during future expansion ex-pansion plans. ONE SUCH improvement is the addition of cross taxi-ways on the north and south end of the existing runway. Plans to complete the south taxi-way are underway, Mr. Pelton explained. ex-plained. Plans for construction of a north taxi-way are being held pending additional funding. CREWS ARE also working to complete a covered parking shelter to be located in front of the main terminal. The shelter will be lighted and centrally heated. he-ated. Major expansion plans began be-gan in 1975, Mr. Pelton said, and have cost between $80 and $90 million. FUNDING FOR expansion has been provided by airport tenants, airport revenues and from a revenue bond issue passed pas-sed in Salt Lake City in 1978. Resident tax money has not been used for any of the improvements, im-provements, Mr. Metcalf said. flowed through the central airport air-port area, have been re-routed around the perimeter of the facility. Claude Pelton, program prog-ram control manager for the Airport Authority, said crews have been digging new canals and filling in the old ones. Artists are working in the main terminal to complete a wall-size landscape painting. In another wing, a sculptor is putting the final touches on a life-size airplane module. AND WHAT about the infamous in-famous "nude flyers" painting? paint-ing? Mr. Pelton says "nobody talks about that." Landscaping in and around the airport is more than 50 per- cent completed and is expected ex-pected to reach the $1 million mark by winter, according to Mr. Metcalf. HE SAID "The mud flats will someday be an attractive site for visitors coming into Salt Lake City." Some of the other changes that have taken place are: -THE DEMOLITION of the historic Interwest hangar. And, the building of all new facilities on the same site. --The introduction of "pit fueling" for major airline subscribers. sub-scribers. -THE CONTINUANCE of a By MARK D. MICKELSEN SALT LAKE CITY Highway High-way and building construction crews, artists and landscapes are putting the finishing touches on the "new" Salt Lake International Airport. CLOSE TO $90 million has been spent on expansion since 1975, Salt Lake Airport Authority Au-thority officials said Wednesday. Highway construction workers have nearly completed com-pleted a multi-million dollar freeway access system which, .someday, will tie into Inter-state-80. Complete with lights and directional signs, the new two-land freeway will speed ' visitors to and from the airport ' ; much quicker than in the past. : AIR PASSENGERS entering the main terminal's A and B - concourses will now load ' directly onto the awaiting planes. The reason is a mod- '-.' ernized system of jet-height ' loading arms which allow passengers pas-sengers to board and depart aircraft without ever going outside. out-side. '; In the past, some passengers were required to exit the . planes down long, steep flights i : of stairs-sometimes during ' ' sieges of bad weather. ACCORDING TO Airport : Authority spokesman Robert Metcalf, the new enclosed . concourses keep patrons out of the weather and allow ' quicker loading and unloading. He said the change may someday allow more aircraft in smaller areas, space not pre- viously available. SEVERAL century-old canals can-als which, until recently. |