Most people think the construction at the Salt Lake International Airport is just an expansion, but airport officials have been planning this overhaul since the late 90s.
Salt Lake's airport was built in the 60s to accommodate 10 million passengers annually, but it later became a major airline hub for both Western and Delta and began taking international flights. Rebuilding would've been done sooner, but 9/11, airline bankruptcies and the Great Recession kept changing things up so plans were always pushed back.
Since groundbreaking in 2014, however, it's been recognized as one of the most on-schedule, on-budget public works project in America.
"The elevated roadway I mentioned, we just finished the last concrete pour for that," said Nancy Volmer, the airport's spokesperson. "That's a huge milestone for us. Just this week, we took down some of those cranes for the south end of the project. We did also do a topping-out ceremony where you place the last steel beam of a facility. And we did this in May on the north concourse. That's another huge milestone for us."
The first phase of construction is scheduled to end in 2020. It'll include a parking garage twice as large as the current one and one central terminal to help streamline security check-ins. Later on in September and a few months after that, they'll open the new west ends of the southern and northern concourses respectively.
