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A Bigger, Grander Dulles on the Horizon
Dulles's 178-foot air traffic control tower, left, is dwarfed by the new 325-foot structure, which is scheduled to go into service next year.
(By Margaret Thomas -- The Washington Post)
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A moving walkway stretching underground between the main terminal and Concourse B began operating last year and will remain an option for passengers. But the performance of the walkway has been spotty.
"We have been working on that to make improvements," Hamilton said. Escalators and moving walkways "require a lot of maintenance, and we're always working on them."
By the end of the month, workers are expected to finish building an additional lane in each direction in the road linking the economy parking lots to the airport entrance and the terminal. The FAA also has completed an environmental study needed to add a fourth runway, which would join two existing runways running north and south and one that runs east and west.
The new control tower will manage flights on the fourth runway, as well as on a planned fifth runway that is not part of the current construction package.
An expanding Dulles will attract businesses to the area, said James E. Bennett, the president and chief executive of the airports authority.
"Companies want to be around major transportation facilities," Bennett said, adding that firms in the Dulles corridor and along Route 28 cite proximity to the airport as "one of the top reasons they chose those locations."
As with most major airports, one effect of growth could be concerns among neighbors. Proposals to build large subdivisions near Dulles probably would play into that phenomenon if they are approved.
"It's probably going to be inevitable in the future that folks, as they move into the [area], will express concerns about operations of the airport. It might not be so much of a noise issue as an overflight issue," Bennett said. Even people who move into homes far from the airport sometimes object to having planes overhead, he said.
"As this metro area has grown, that development has moved out closer to the airport," Bennett said. "As that farmland is converted into residential and other development, we're going to see that overflight issue develop."
