b'SPECIAL 34 MCI SPECIAL REPORT TERMINALSREPORTKansas City Intl Maintains Convenience While Delivering Major UpgradesBY JENNIFER DAACK WOOLSON After dozens of public listeningAlthough convenient, the terminals werein two concourses served by a 634-foot sessions and nearly four yearslacking in modern comforts and a logicalconnector with moving walkways. of construction, Kansas Citypassenger flow. Things needed to change.A new centralized baggage claim area International Airport (MCI) opened a In doing so, MCI heard the publicsis located on the first level. And a new new $1.5 billion terminal on Feb. 28 to requests loud and clear: Keep it6,219-space parking garage adjacent to rave reviews. convenient, and keep it Kansas City. Butthe terminal keeps the car-to-gate time as High on the list of requests from localmake it better. short as possible. (See Page 54 for more citizens was maintaining the conveniencedetails about the garage.) MCI had provided for the past 50 years,One Building, Many Benefits The consolidated master plan allows including a short and easy walk fromThe first step in making it better wasMCI to operate more efficiently and the parking garage to gates. In part, itconsolidating the terminal under one roofincrease capacity while creating a was easy because the setback fromrather than in three separate buildings.convenient and intuitive experience for the terminals front door to the boardingTicketing and check-in are on the secondpassengers, says Peter Lefkovits, design bridges was just 70 feethowever,level along with 16 TSA screening lanes.principal with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, holdrooms were just 30 feet deep afterThe nearly 1.1 million square-foot terminalsthe architecture and structural engineering changes in security cut that space in half.40 gates (also on the second level) are nowfirm behind the project.May | June 2023AirportImprovement.com'