The rapid growth of Baltimore-Washington International Airport has created such a demand for parking that construction of a planned nine-story parking garage must stay on schedule to avoid trouble, airport officials said yesterday.
"We're soon going to be at a critical stage," said Melanie Miller, a spokeswoman for BWI. "If our levels of passengers increase, it's going to be a close call with the number of our parking spaces. We have to stay on schedule."
That $139 million, nine-story parking garage received approval from the state Board of Public Works yesterday. It will triple the number of parking spaces close to the terminal at BWI.
The first phase of the project, to be completed in November 2002, will have 4,000 spaces; the second phase will have 4,400 spaces and is scheduled to be done by November 2003. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.
There are 4,600 spaces in the existing garage.
The new garage is just one element in a $1.8 billion development plan for the airport announced in August 2000. The expansion calls for addition of 12,000 parking spaces, new concourses and pedestrian bridges, moving sidewalks, a wider road in front of the terminal and a people-mover system connecting the airport, parking garages and the Amtrak/MARC rail station.
The new garage will feature an automated "Smart Park" system to direct travelers to available spaces. Operating since June 1 in the existing garage, as part of a pilot project, the system uses a network of sensors and lights suspended over the parking spaces to indicate where spaces are occupied or available.
It's a system that airport officials call the first of its kind at any airport in the United States. Two industry experts said yesterday that they had not heard of such a system operating elsewhere in the country.
"This would be a fantastic help in getting people directed quickly as to where there are open spaces," said David S. Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, a passenger representation group based in Washington. "Anything that makes the airport work better entices passengers to use the airport."
The new garage also will enable people to pay their bills using cash or credit card while still in the terminal by using a machine that resembles an automated teller machine, said John White, a spokesman for BWI. Travelers will be allowed a 30-minute grace period to reach their car and then drive through an automated exit booth.
