ST. LOUIS – It’s being called the flight path for the future at St. Louis-Lambert International Airport. So if you head to the airport anytime soon, don’t forget to pack your patience.
Passengers can see flight activity on the runway by looking north from Concourses A and C, and the terminal ticketing levels.
Two major construction projects are about to wrap up at St. Louis Airport, and director Rhonda Hamm-Niebruegge is excited.
“You should not be surprised. There is a lot of dirt and a lot of concrete. We hope to have that finished by the end of October, so it’s gone really well,” she said. “Great partnership with the contractor.”
The work to reconstruct the airport’s most-used runways continues, with work crews tearing out and replacing large parts of existing pavement that had reached its end of life. There was also a sizeable asbestos abatement within the pavement.
The runway accounts for about 40% of St. Louis air operations.
“Our largest runway—12 Right, 30 Left—has been under construction for the last year, so it’s a two-phase project. That runway was built in the 1950s, and so the first half of it was completed last year. This is the larger portion of it. It started early spring, and we hope to have it wrapped up by the end of October,” Hamm-Niebruegge said.
The airport director said the FAA is supporting 75% of the costs of the $90 million project.
“It’s been a big project, it’s really great to see that our largest runway and oldest runway is now gonna be brand new,” she said.
Planning and development continued construction at the Terminal 2 garage complex after completing the project’s first phase—a westbound entrance—in 2021. St. Louis took a very inclusive view to improve the customer’s experience with garage parking at Terminal 2 with the simple goal of shrinking traffic congestion. Southwest and Lufthansa Airlines are located in T2, which is the busiest terminal. This multi-phase project includes changing traffic patterns and entryways to the Terminal 2 parking garage.
It also has opened more lanes on the east side of Terminal 2’s lower drive for parking shuttles. It has increased the length of curb space and thus the airport’s ability to keep some parked vehicles out of the drive lane, to improve the true traffic flow for departures and arrivals. Ultimately, Terminal 2 garage traffic will move from the lower drive and vehicles will access the entrance directly from Lambert International Boulevard (LIB.) Construction on the westbound entry has been completed.
The wave of construction projects will continue throughout the year.