Airport expansion project would increase gates, rename terminal

Harry Reid International Airport officials on Tuesday provided new details on a likely multibillion-dollar airport expansion that could take at least four years to develop and serve as a bridge to the 2037 opening of a supplemental airport south of Las Vegas.

Clark County Aviation Director Rosemary Vassiliadis and two airport planning associates briefed the Clark County Commission on the plan in a 25-minute overview of projects that would expand Terminal 1 from 39 to 65 gates, build two multimodal centers that would also expand airport parking and redesign roadways that would separate direct connections between the two airport terminals from airport bypass traffic.

As part of the program, Terminal 3 would be renamed Terminal 2 to avoid passenger confusion.

Senior Director of Aviation James Chrisley and Managing Director of Planning Bryant Holt detailed several projects within the expansion program to enthused commissioners who said they’d been waiting for months to hear about the project.

Officials said it’s too early to estimate the cost of the project, but the work appears to be far more extensive than the $2.4 billion Terminal 3 project that was completed in 2012. Vassiliadis made it clear that the project would likely be paid for with bonds supported by airport user fees — dollars the airport collects from vendors, airlines and passengers for things like landing fees, parking and gaming concessions.

After commissioners encouraged the airport team to press ahead, the next step will be to introduce the concept to a consortium of airlines that use Reid which must approve projects and would probably review the program in December.

“We’ll call our airport operators and get feedback from them,” Vassiliadis said in an interview after the meeting. “And that’s when we roll up our sleeves. We’ll be presenting to the airline consortium which approves our budget.”

New details

Airport officials said the expansion of Terminal 1 gates will be accomplished by redesigning terminals from an outmoded “satellite” arrangement to a pier system. Instead of up to six gates each that extend from four hubs at the A and B gates, a linear design would be used. That would provide room for about 33 gates as opposed to the existing 23.

Another pier of gates with about 11 spaces would be built toward the unoccupied area where Terminal 2 once stood. One of the advantages of that is that because the space is unoccupied, the gates could be built without having to take any existing airport space out of service.

Other new details:

The Terminal 1 project would be phased so that some gates could be taken offline while construction is underway. The airport wouldn’t ever lose any gate capacity while the project is in progress.

Two multimodal centers would provide access to ride-hailing companies, public transportation options and airport crew members and employee parking. The north multimodal center would be considered off Paradise Road south of Tropicana Avenue and a south center is being eyed somewhere between Interstate 215 and Sunset Road and between Las Vegas Boulevard and Gillespie Road. Those centers could also provide another big airport need – public parking. Officials aren’t far enough along with planning to determine how many new spaces would be provided or how tall a parking structure could be or if some of it could be subterranean. They also pointed out that close-in parking would expand with ride-hailing queues removed from an existing parking garage.

The northern multimodal center could tie into public transportation, including the Vegas Loop system. The southern center would be ideally located to service the Rent-A-Car Center, a possible transit connection to the Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport in the Ivanpah Valley and, maybe sometime in the future, a mass transit system along the Strip.

Ground transportation changes also are under consideration. The planners’ strategy would be to separate roads connecting the two terminals from the airport bypass lanes that tunnel beneath two airport runways. The new roadway would include a new flyover bridge and a looped ramp. Planners also are looking at how to better utilize the tunnel, which has an unused central bore.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.