The face has changed so much at the airport, it's hard to keep up. Reno-Tahoe International's Brian Kulpin told us there's a reason for that. "Well, it always has to change because our community needs the best way to welcome and send people off."
Kulpin invited us out to see the latest, and biggest facelift of all...removing everything between the 2 escalators downstairs and upstairs, with most concessions going after you get your pat down. As he told us, "You want to have about 80% of your restaurants and stores past security so people have time to open their laptops, do some shopping."
Single downstairs security checkpoints are the rule in most airports. Reno-Tahoe International is one of the only airports in the U.S. that has had 2 security stations upstairs, concessions downstairs. The finished product will mean a big change for fliers once all the dust settles. We'll join the rest of the airports: centralized security downstairs, restaurants upstairs.
The heart of the project, a building over 50 years old, tackled by 3 big excavators, jackhammers and blowtorches, attacking the bare bones left over from the gutted corridor. A huge excavator tears down the building where Brew Brothers and McDonalds used to be. Downstairs, where you used to get your Egg McMuffin, water hoses control the dust. Upstairs, where the art gallery was, debris showers down: concrete blocks….metal flooring….a steel girder torn away, twisted, tumbling down.
When the dirty work is done, a new airport takes its place, with towering windows bringing big views and new light. More space upstairs, for more restaurants and shops for travelers, who will have more time to enjoy them after going through security. Even the floors will change. Kulpin told us, "We took the Truckee River in a tile and terrazzo effect and laid metal into the floor like Lahontan Trout." Just like the ones you see now from the skier statue to baggage claim.
When will we see this all-new airport? Next April, they tell us. As for the project's cost, $27-million, paid for with facility charges, user fees, private investment, a bond and TSA funding.
-written by John Potter, Channel 2 News
