TSA-Funded Projects are Underway for Targeted Improvements to Checked Bag Inspection Systems

Several dozen airports throughout the United States are in various stages of planning or execution to improve select components of their checked bag inspection systems. The catalyst for this broad initiative occurred in 2019, when TSA engaged industry partners to conduct an initial gap analysis of airport capabilities relative to its planning guidelines and design standards. Based on the insights gained through this initial gap analysis, TSA established the Checked Baggage Inspection Remediation program in 2021 with the intent of carrying out a variety of 13 safety, security and efficiency improvement projects at 198 potential airports.

As of this July, 62 of those 198 airports had signed memorandums of agreement with TSA to participate in its remediation program—a key requirement to receiving federal funding for the needed fixes. Under the agreements, TSA covers the cost of equipment and installation; participating airports are responsible for ongoing maintenance.

Bangor International Airport (BGR) in Maine finished a host of piecemeal improvements under the program this spring. The fast-growing regional airport has a single-line system that diverts baggage into two screening lines with explosives detection system machines, sending suspicious baggage into the checked baggage resolution area room and then back to a single line that ends in the make-up area.

Recent upgrades include anti-fatigue flooring, noise-reducing wall and ceiling tiles, scan guns in the checked baggage resolution area, and automatic tag reader scanners before the explosives detection system machines. Beyond adding new equipment, the project implemented a new round-robin approach to screening that creates more even use of the explosives detection system lines.

“We can accurately track baggage to ensure the safety of passengers and employees alike,” says BGR Building Maintenance and Construction Projects Supervisor Mike Worcester.

Looking ahead, Worcester says these improvements will benefit the airport for years to come. “If we expand beyond a single line system, the ATR [automatic tag readers] will be able to send data to the appropriate piece of sorting equipment and sort baggage for the airlines.”

Equipment installation and facility renovation started in October 2023 and wrapped in late March 2024. Most of the work occurred after-hours to minimize disruption to operations. Contractors generally began working after the last flight departed at night and continued until TSA opened the baggage handling system for screening at 3:00 the following morning.

Worcester’s team assisted the remediation team with project logistics such as material handling, planning meetings, scheduling daytime construction and general troubleshooting. Early involvement with the logic controller programs and new hardware helped reduce the learning curve for onsite personnel after equipment was installed. Looking back at the completed project, Worcester stresses the importance of including the BGR maintenance team and establishing clear lines of communication among contractors and airport personnel.

System and Workplace Upgrades

V2X, a global company that specializes in integrating physical and digital environments, is leading the CBIS [Checked Bag Inspection System] Remediation effort and is subsequently executing recommended improvements at airports like BGR. TSA awarded the firm a five-year Indefinite Deliver/Indefinite Quantity contract to provide Security Equipment Deployment Services (SEDS) for checked baggage systems across the nation. The CBIS Remediation task order is one of five task orders under this overarching contract. The other task orders include: Program Management Office Support, Inline Baggage Handling Support, Standalone Baggage Handling Support and AdHoc Support.

“The purpose of the CBIS Remediation task order is to upgrade all those opportunities to improve the safety, security and efficiency of the checked baggage inspection system and also improve the environmental working conditions for Transportation Security Officers,” explains Walter Todd, CBIS Remediation senior program manager at V2X.

VTC (formerly known as Vic Thompson Company), ControlTouch Systems LLC and Golden Ratio Management Corporation are members of V2X’s team and worked on numerous improvement projects during the recent BGR and SDF deployments. CLX Engineering and J.A. Watts Inc. are also on the V2X team and have completed other sites across the nation.

In addition to the CBIS Remediation effort, VTC played a part in the initial gap analysis survey, which was based on the then-current TSA Planning Guidelines and Design Standards Version 7, which has since been updated to Version 8. “VTC, Raytheon and Leidos team members collaborated to develop a comprehensive checklist of items necessary to bring systems up to current standards. The checklist was approved by TSA and used in evaluation of the Checked Baggage Inspection Systems,” says Joe Pharis, director of Field Services at VTC. (Raytheon’s contracts were later bought out by V2X, which then completed the task order.)

Tracy Quinn, V2X’s SEDS senior program manager, says the teams followed an “enormous checklist” to evaluate the checked bag inspection systems and workspaces. Using the data collected, TSA then established which specific improvement projects each airport qualified for.

Quinn notes that TSA is not overhauling or replacing entire screening systems with this program; it is updating certain pieces of them.

“Our task order tries to make them more efficient in specific areas that get a good amount of bang for the buck,” Todd adds. He likens the strategy to boosting a computer’s performance by adding peripheral devices or updating software rather than buying an entirely new computer.

Meetings are held with each airport to review the recommended concept designs and implementation plans.

What’s in Play

Projects within the scope of V2X’s remediation task order include:

• automatic tag readers
• scan guns
• no-lift, sliding-top tables
• fail-safe systems
• noise mitigation measures for checked bag resolution areas
• anti-fatigue flooring
• air conditioning for checked bag resolution areas
• round-robin programming
• explosives detection system over-height protection
• bag measuring arrays
• emergency stops at all baggage inspection stations
• emergency stop reset systems
• automatic recirculation

Projects are designed to improve system efficiency and enhance working conditions for TSA personnel. Checked baggage resolution areas, which are often warehouse-like environments are receiving comfort measures such as air conditioning, noise reduction materials and stress-relieving floors. Mechanical elements to increase efficiency include equipment that reduces false alarms.

“Our task order not only improves the safety, security and efficiency of the baggage screening system, but it also improves the working conditions,” says Todd.

Noise mitigation materials include sound-buffering panels on the walls and plastic divider curtains. “In some cases, the rooms are not well divided between the areas that they work in and the actual conveyor system,” explains Todd. “So we partition them off with noise dampening plastic curtain strips to reduce the noise decibel level and make it more comfortable.”

“No-lift projects” optimize support equipment at inspection stations. Sliding-top tables, for example, allow TSA officers to slide the top of the table directly against the conveyor to transfer bags for further inspection rather than lifting them manually.

On the conveyor, installation of fail-safe systems help bags that are not cleared from making it onto the clear line if not properly resolved by an explosives detection system machine. Round-robin baggage allocation makes sure each explosives detection machine is being used proportionally to the others. “That helps even out usage for maintenance purposes,” Todd notes.

Over-height protection for explosives detection machines involves installing a gantry bar above the top of the conveyor system right before the scanner opening to reduce the likelihood of oversized bags blocking the entrance. “When a bag gets jammed, it can cause significant delays with getting the system back up and running,” Todd says.

Emergency stop buttons are a crucial safety function because they enable Transportation Security Officers to stop a conveyor if they need to pull a bag from the belt. “If someone stops the conveyor at a baggage inspection station, one central E-stop reset panel ensures that you can only reset the system and start it back up from one location,” Todd explains.

Automated baggage measuring arrays help identify the size of bags as they are being conveyed. Automatic recirculation programming sends bags back around the conveyor if there is a stack up right before the explosives detection equipment.

Improvements at Louisville Int’l included anti-fatigue flooring.

Scan guns and automatic tag readers allow personnel to track bags all the way through an airport’s handling system. They also help reconcile images and clear bags faster within the checked bag resolution area, which improves efficiency and accuracy for TSA officers.

Another Example

Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) had 18 projects across two checked baggage inspection systems. Improvements included automatic tag readers, scan guns in the checked bag resolution area, no-lift, sliding-top tables, over-height protection, emergency stops, emergency stop resets, automatic bag measuring arrays, automatic recirculation and anti-fatigue flooring. Todd notes that SDF’s size and throughput posed challenges during the deployment.

Anti-fatigue flooring and noise mitigation measures are making conditions more comfortable for screening staff at Bangor Int’l.

To accommodate busy terminals at SDF and other airports, almost all work is being completed outside of traditional operating hours—after the last flight at night and before the first flight the next morning. A systems check with the maintenance contractor and/or local TSA personnel is conducted to ensure crews didn’t have any issues supporting the site and screeners can commence with daily operations. “We make sure the system is back up and running before we leave each morning,” says Todd.

Without full workdays to accomplish the upgrades, deployments at BGR and SDF each lasted approximately five months. “It was a pretty big effort at both of those sites,” Todd recalls.

Originally, V2X’s task order was for three years, but TSA extended by one year, he notes. Deployment at eligible airports is expected to carry on at least into late 2025.

Wider System Upgrades at Louisville Int’l Following a similar timeline as TSA-sponsored improvements to specific pieces of its baggage screening process, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport (SDF) made major changes to the entire handling system. At more than 20 years old, the baggage system at SDF was a “fully depreciated asset”—so much so that airport personnel had to manufacture replacement parts because they could no longer be purchased. “It was pretty obvious that it had served its useful life and it was time to upgrade,” says SDF Executive Director Dan Mann. “At some point, we would have a catastrophic failure and won’t have the ability to move the bags where we need.” Beginning in 2021, the airport began coordinating with TSA, its airline partners and project designer Alliiance to design a new baggage system to better meet the needs of stakeholders. Mann says the most significant change was basic routing. With the old system, bags from arriving flights would go from the secure side, rotate through the Baggage Claim area on the public side and then return to the secure side. “It was just not something TSA wanted to see as we move forward,” Mann explains. The new system is designed so bags from arriving flights are loaded on the secure side and head straight to Baggage Claim. “From a security perspective, it’s a much better operation.” Construction on the four-belt project began in May 2023 and took just shy of 12 months. The new layout includes an east wing and west wing, which allowed SDF to keep one side running while crews worked on the other. “We were operational the whole time,” Mann notes. “There was a little congestion and it took a lot of coordination with the airlines, but the fact that we could do half of it at one time made the construction go much quicker.” The airport also upgraded its tracking technology. “We would get complaints about long bag wait times, but we didn’t have a metric to measure that,” Mann says. The new system, part of SDF’s Genetech Command Center, measures when a plane lands, when it parks at the gate, and when the first bag and last bags are delivered to Baggage Claim. “Now we have real-time data to work with to make improvements,” Mann remarks. The recent redesign/reconfiguration required fewer baggage belts and, as a result, created more space. Some was reclaimed to allow more room for personnel to handle bags. Aesthetic improvements include a new layout for the oversized baggage area, dynamic advertising added along the back wall of the baggage claim area, and new lighting and furniture. Mechanical systems above the ceiling were also updated. Rental car counters were replaced at the same time, and terrazzo upgrades are ongoing. “By and large, it looks like a new facility,” Mann reports. “We’ll have it fully done later this fall.” Even with one fewer bag belt, the new baggage handling system is projected to meet demand for the next 20 years. Like many airports, SDF is seeing larger aircraft and more baggage than five years ago. Between the system’s increased handling capacity and upgraded technology, Mann considers it to be a substantial upgrade to the customer experience. Recent baggage system improvements are part of the airport’s $500 million terminal improvement program.