The Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport on Tuesday announced a $20.6 million renovation project that will include replacing 44-year-old gate seating and swapping out rusted jet bridges for new heated and cooled bridges.
Renovations, which began this week, include:
- Adding more internet access points to increase Wi-Fi speeds;
- Improving connectivity through an installed distributed antenna system that Verizon has signed up to use (the system is open to all wireless carriers);
- Adding new arrival and departure monitors;
- Adding visual paging;
- Replacing gate seating from 1972 with black polyurethane chairs that have USB ports and power outlets;
- Replacing tile with carpet to decrease noise; and
- Installing smaller columns in the seating areas.
The planned arrangement of the new chairs will also slightly increase seating capacity, officials said.
Airport spokesman Shane Carter said the airport has recently become debt-free and will pay for the project through retained earnings. The airport will also receive reimbursements from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Passenger Facility Chart Program, he said.
Renovations are expected to be completed in one year.
The Little Rock Municipal Airport Commission has invested nearly $90 million in terminal enhancements, including the planned concourse renovations, over the past six years.
The ticket lobby, baggage screening and security checkpoint and baggage claim area have already been revamped. An automated system was also installed for the parking deck last year. It tells drivers where the next available space is, officials said.
Construction on concourse renovations will take place mostly at night and during off-peak travel times in a walled-off area to minimize inconveniencing passengers. The project will be put on hold during the busy holiday season and resume in January.
Some gates will be temporarily relocated while construction is underway, including the American Airlines gates that have already been moved for a month. Its gates are in the first section that will be renovated.
The architect for the project is Alliiance of Minneapolis. The contractor is Flynco Inc. of Little Rock. Vitra of Switzerland is providing the new seating.
Part of the $20.6 million project — $2.5 million for construction of additional concourse restrooms — has already been completed.
The airport Wi-Fi has been upgraded, more than 20 access points have been added and some of antenna distribution system has also been completed.
The airport also made some infrastructure improvements, which included increasing the amount of chilled water going to the rotunda to make that space easier to cool in the summer.
“We know that, when someone flies into the airport for the first time, this is their first impression of our state, and we want that impression to be a good one,” Virgil Miller Jr., chairman of the airport commission, said Tuesday. “We know when someone leaves here and they’re going back home, this is the last impression that they have of our state and our city, and we want that to be a very welcoming experience also.”
Ronald Mathieu, the airport’s executive director, said the purpose of the renovations is to give the concourse a better look with brighter colors, open it up, make it more comfortable and emphasize the airport’s focus on service.
He added that the airport has the fastest free Wi-Fi of any airports in the Western Hemisphere, with upload and download speeds of 100 gigabits per second.
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