Construction on Arnold Palmer Regional Airport's new terminal hits turbulence

CBS News

2 days ago

While the new terminal at Pittsburgh International Airport is nearing completion, work is also underway on a new terminal at the Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Unity Township. But their construction project has hit a little bit of turbulence in the past few weeks, stemming from the slow delivery of building supplies.
"Delayed" is not a term anyone loves to hear at an airport. But as Gabe Monzo, the executive director of the Westmoreland County Airport Authority, says, "delayed" is a term that sometimes just comes with the aviation territory, even when you are talking about delays with the construction of a new 32,000 square foot terminal building and the steel needed to complete it.
"It's domestic steel, it is not imported, so it's going to take a while," Monzo said. "We deal with it accordingly and we stop the project, and we will carry it on once the steel arrives. We are anticipating that within a month or so it should be here."
Monzo says he is not sure why there is a backup on the steel delivery, but he says the construction of this new terminal is still in good shape, with a phase one completion now on track for March of next year instead of December this year. A full construction completion of all phases is still looking at an on-time arrival in 2027.
The new terminal building is landing with a price tag of around $22 million that Monzo says has been fully funded, and it is one of three construction projects at the airport right now. The other two are a taxiway improvement project that should be wrapping up at the end of this year and the recently completed elevator installation on their 65-foot tower.
Despite all the work going on, however, Monzo says their daily flights on Spirit Airlines to Orlando and Myrtle Beach, as well as their twice-weekly flights on Spirit to Fort Lauderdale, have not been affected. He says they really need the new terminal space sooner rather than later because Arnold Palmer has become such a popular place to fly in and out of.
"You got to remember that when you are landing an Airbus, you have 175 people getting off and 175 people getting on," said Monzo. "So, it's 350 people in the terminal building and right now our terminal building is rather small for 350 people to be walking around."