$13M McCarran airport C Concourse renovation rounding into form
A renovation project at McCarran International Airport is adding some sparkle to concourse C just as the volume of travelers passing through inches closer to pre-pandemic levels.
The main feature of the concoursewide update was removing the carpet in the walkways and adding terrazzo flooring whose chips of marble, quartz, granite and glass give it a shine and make it perfect for giving travelers a glitzy Las Vegas welcome.
“It’s easier to clean, it’s easier to maintain and for those who use rolling luggage it rolls easier,” said McCarran spokesman Joe Rajchel. “We’ve done terrazzo throughout the airport, so it keeps us consistent with the look and feel of the airport as we’ve done work in other portions of it.”
McCarran officials didn’t want the vast amount of carpeting that was removed to go to waste so they looked to repurpose it, Rajchel said.
“All of the carpet that was brought up was sent back and recycled by the manufacturer,” he said.
The renovations are part of a $13 million project that in addition to concourse C work includes the same upgrades to an area in the B gates in Terminal 1.
Work began in October when McCarran’s passenger volume was extremely low. It’s set to be complete by mid-August as just gates C 1-4 still have renovation work left to do.
In the gate areas, crews removed the large, bulky podiums at each gate to allow for additional seating.
“By putting these sleeker ones (podiums) we’ve been able to add over 600 more seats to the C concourse,” Rajchel said.
Along with the additional seating, McCarran added new charging stations for people to recharge their smartphones and other portable devices while they wait for a flight. The additions bring the total in the concourse to around 700 charging stations.
“More charging opportunities for people,” Rajchel said. “Again, in this age, it is a valuable commodity when they travel.”
Crews also laid Gerflor vinyl flooring in the gate areas. The flooring is not only easier to maintain than carpet but also has an extra cushion for passengers and airport employees.
“It’s softer on the joints, softer for the people that are standing on it,” Rajchel said. “It’s beneficial for everyone.”
New LED light fixtures also have been installed in the concourse and automatic window shades were added to allow airport staff to lower them when sunlight is bursting into the seating areas.
“It allows us to bring them down when it will block the sun from people’s eyes when it’s too bright out and it will also help with some energy efficiency,” Rajchel noted.
He said McCarran benefited in multiple ways by being able to carry out the work when travel volume at the airport was well below average due to the pandemic.
“This is a big project in scope and with less people traveling it was a perfect opportunity to get it done,” Rajchel said. “We were able to impact fewer passengers than we ever could have imagined doing it when we did. By doing it during the pandemic we were able to do it quicker and that saved us money. So it was really a win-win of being able to do it quicker, cheaper and not impacting as many customers as we normally would.”
Contact Mick Akers at makersz @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on Twitter.