ER757 wrote:cschleic wrote:wedgetail737 wrote:
I had forgotten that SEA wants to extend the N-concourse.
Options are limited due to space. Some crazy long term ideas: More landfill on the westside and move cargo there, freeing up east cargo for passenger use. I assume the cemetery land is off limits but don't know enough about that. Build new terminals over the entrance roadway, ala SFO's international terminal. Move the garage across the highway and a new terminal in its place, freeing up space west of it, or replace the garage with gates. It could be built over Pacific Highway. I know, a bazillion dollars and decades. But looking at aerial photos, there aren't a lot of options other than expanding other airports.
Moving the garage is a non-starter. Expansion of north satellite or new north terminal will never get done by2027, maybe 2030 if we're lucky. Buying more land on the west side and moving cargo over there is a possibility but again that's really long-term. Look how long it took for the 3rd runway
The SEA plan for approximately the 2027 time frame is most easily understood from the map of projects on pages 28 and 29 of this PDF:
https://www.portseattle.org/sites/defau ... ummary.pdfA brief summary, not including projects already in work, like the International Arrivals Facility and North Satellite modernization:
* Multiple taxiway changes for more efficient and safer ground movements
* Consolidation of north cargo area and RON area
* Add / relocate cargo warehouses to nearby offsite.
* Airport Expressway road re-alignment
* 2nd Terminal Landside - Ticketing area, parking, and transit station to east of re-aligned road (current site of Doug Fox parking and the cell phone lot)
* 2nd Terminal Airside - 19 gates to west of re-aligned road, connected to ticketing by pedestrian bridge
* Hardstands in area between North Satellite and re-aligned road (served by recently completed concourse D annex?)
* Increased fuel tank farm capacity.
* Add 2nd parking level to the charter and cruise line bus lot.
* Relocation of facilities impacted by the above construction (fire department, lavatory truck dump, deicing storage, etc), some of it to the west side of the airfield, near the FAA TRACON center.
These projects are currently in the environmental review phase. Next step would be detailed design, followed by construction. If I understand their budget correctly, they're planning to moderately increase spending compared to the current pace that the IAF and North Satellite projects are consuming money.
On Page 25, there is a map showing some potential additional options to complete in the 2034 time frame:
* Add end-around taxiways to avoid crossing runways
* Further consolidate north cargo area for "air freight" (passenger airline cargo?)
* Create a new South Aviation Support Area (south of the tank farm) for "integrator freight" (Fed Ex, etc?)
* Move maintenance hangars to South Aviation Support Area
* Extend 2nd terminal further into current north cargo area
* Extend international terminal further into current maintenance hangar area
Interestingly, Port of Seattle's master plan was based on reaching 25 million passenger enplanements by 2024. They actually hit that level in 2019 (they started scoping the plan in 2014, and growth accelerated).
The Puget Sound Regional Council report is based on a growth rate of only 2.6% through 2050, although in recent years, SEA traffic has grown around 4%. Yet even the PSRC report number would have SEA only meeting about 60% of regional demand. Hence why they're talking about a desire to supplement SEA with 2-3 additional runways in the region providing commercial service.