Portland, MAINE (NEWS CENTER) — The Portland International Jetport is preparing for a major face lift.
Plans were presented to the Portland City Council Finance committee on Monday night. The renovation is ambitious. There will be a 137,000 square foot addition to the existing terminal, doubling its size. Three new gates will go in, which will allow another carrier to fly out of the Jetport.
Highlighting the project will be four additional security screening lanes, bringing the total to eight, and new explosive detecting equipment will be provided through a 9 million dollar grant from the Transportation Safety Administration. Jetport Director Paul Bradbury says those additional security lanes will be critical to getting travelers in the air during the busiest time of day.
“Just to service the customers we have now in the peak hours in the morning push, we have insufficient gates and insufficient security screening,” says Bradbury.
The last major renovation of the Jetport took place in 1995, and there have been several smaller projects since. In those 15 years, Jetport usage has gone up by more then 60%. The numbers continue to climbing. While cities like Boston and Manchester have seen a 10% drop in air traffic over the past several years, Portland is up by the same amount.
“The jetport is the economic engine for the region, so its critical that we invest in it its no coincidence that three of the states largest employers are within a stone throw of the jetport,” says Bradbury.
The price tag is high, about 75 million dollars — but none of that money comes out of the city budget. The city council will vote on the plan next month. If passed, construction would begin this spring, lasting for 22 months. The project is expected to employ an average of 100 people per day.