We’re about to begin a very intense and challenging summer of construction for The New Airport for San Jose and Silicon Valley. We’re doing all we can to complete this phase of construction as quickly as possible to minimize the period of inconvenience to you.

Once we’re done with this phase in October, however, we will be past the most difficult period for our passengers and drivers for the entire construction program. The good news: we continue to stay on schedule to complete the upgrade to Terminal A next summer and open the new Terminal B in summer 2010.

During the next several months, however, it will be a good idea for you to add a few more minutes to your travel plans while you use SJC to allow for possible congestion on Airport roads or near the terminals.

Also, please be alert to frequent changes in our roads and traffic patterns, and please respect construction flaggers as they halt traffic from time to time to allow materials and equipment to reach construction sites throughout the Airport.

We appreciate your patience and understanding as we build The New Airport that will become a proud new gateway for our residents and businesses.

Terminal A roadway construction to affect Airport traffic and passengers this summer
Major road work directly in front of Terminal A is scheduled to start the week of June 2 that will contribute to additional Airport road congestion through the summer. Staff and contractors are working closely with the Terminal A carriers to manage the impacts of construction and communicate these changes to customers.

Roadway lanes will be shifted several times over the course of the summer. During the first stage during June, we will close lanes in front of the International Arrivals Building so that we can rebuild the road. Starting in early July, we will be shifting the curbside drop-off locations in front of Terminal A as construction progresses.

During the Terminal A road construction, the Airport also will open a temporary detour that will let Terminal C traffic bypass Terminal A. This will shorten the loop for drivers going to Terminal C and reduce traffic in front of Terminal A from early June through completion of the work in October.

Escalator replacement for Terminal A begins
The Airport will start the replacement of the two escalators inside Terminal A also the week of June 2, the next step in the program to upgrade the terminal. Each escalator will take about four months to complete, and the first phase begins at the north end, near the American Airlines curbside check-in. Once the northern escalator is replaced with two wider escalators by this summer, the work will move to the southern escalator near the Southwest Airlines check-in.

The escalator replacement means that over the next several months the remaining single southern escalator will serve passengers for all the airlines at Terminal A, including Southwest, American, Hawaiian, and Mexicana.

We encourage our passengers who aren’t checking baggage to be dropped off at the curb in front of the garage side and enter the terminal over the pedestrian bridge from the garage.

More road construction
A temporary lane reduction in the roadway between Terminal A and Terminal C, needed to allow construction for the Airport’s new terminal road system, ended this week, which has relieved significant traffic congestion that occurred during peak periods over the past two weeks.

A section of the new road in front of Terminal B now has been completed and placed in service this week. This allowed the restoration to three lanes on the relocated road, and with this traffic shift, the Airport can begin work on the foundations for the new Terminal B.

The new North Bypass Overcrossing is rapidly taking shape in front of the North Concourse, and it is scheduled for completion in July. The new bridge will open for traffic in August, which will require drivers to adjust to new merges, signage, and ways for leaving the Airport.

Other work on upgrades for Terminal A
We’ll be starting work soon on new ground-level ticketing lobbies that will replace the ticketing area now located on the second level of Terminal A. Once the new ticketing lobbies are in service early in 2009, we can start the work to double the capacity of the TSA security checkpoints on the second level. This should result in much better service and shorter waits at Terminal A when we’re done with most of the upgrades mid-2009.

Expansion of Terminal A has also begun on the “air side” of the terminal that will provide additional space for new concessions and much more comfortable departure lounges for passengers. The new space currently is scheduled to be in service in the first half of 2009. Passengers will notice the construction wall located where the windows overlooked the airfield between Gates A3 to A7, where we’re building the “bump-out.”

Pile driving for Airport rental car garage nearing completion
The driving of more than 2200 piles is about 80% completed for the foundations of the new rental car and public parking garage at the Airport, and we’re scheduled to be finished with it in early June, several weeks ahead of schedule. Because of the noise made by pile driving, we’re continuing to distribute free ear plugs at Terminal C to our passengers and people working in the area who might be affected by the sound of pile driving.

Once we’re done with pile driving, we’ll be over the noisiest part of the entire construction program. Major concrete pours now are being made for the footings of the seven-deck, 3350-space garage that will be located conveniently across from the new Terminal B. Each major concrete pour is averaging around 70 truckloads, and we’ve adjusted the pile driving schedule to make room for the additional construction traffic on Fridays.

The garage will start to take shape in the coming weeks as crews place rebar for concrete perimeter walls, and the garage decks will start going up this fall.

Terminal B construction now under way
The site for Terminal B has now been cleared for construction, and crews are now starting to build the foundations for the new terminal. Terminal B will provide ticketing, security, and baggage claim support for the gates in the North Concourse, which itself is now scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. Until Terminal B is open for service in mid-2010, the remainder of Terminal C will remain in service.

Once Terminal B is ready in about two years, we will tear down the rest of Terminal C in late 2010 so that we can complete the last section of the new roadway through the terminal area and clear the site for the future expansion of Terminal B.

Construction schedules are subject to change
Because the $1.3 billion project to replace and upgrade the SJC terminal area is complex and moving very fast, our construction schedules are subject to continuing revision. We will keep updating the public and our customers about the project details as they occur, but please bear with us as we adjust schedules for the project over the next two years. We appreciate your patience, and thank you for flying San José while we build The New Airport for you.