It’s a new year and the start of a new chapter at RDU, with construction at Terminal 2 kicking off Monday, Jan. 5.
Joe Milazzo, Executive Director of the Regional Transportation Alliance, said the $2.5 billion airport construction project is funded mainly by passenger facility charges, along with airline fees, customer spending at the airport, limited federal grants and local tax dollars.
While the project is set to wrap up in 2032, Milazzo says travelers will start seeing changes much sooner.
“You’re going to start having bridges that’ll make it easy to go from Terminal One into the airport or Terminal Two to no longer be competing in the same traffic flows,” Milazzo said. “That’s going to be great. The airport [runway] is going to be longer.”
The runway will be 639 feet longer and moved 537 feet further away from Terminal 2.
This expansion will allow the airport then to expand Terminal Two even more, Milazzo added. While the terminal expansion won’t happen in the next few years, the runway relocation and lengthening will happen in the meantime, which sets the groundwork for more capacity.
“We just continue to have such a need for air travel, and a demand for air travel here in this market, and we really have a critical need to upgrade and expand our infrastructure to keep up with that growth,” Milazzo said.
Travelers can expect construction across the campus in Terminal Two starting Monday.
Stephanie Hawco, Media Relations Director at RDU, says a construction wall will be installed at the north end of the terminal. While it will temporarily block the windows, the changes will allow for a larger ticketing area, an upgraded baggage claim system, expanded international arrivals space, additional checkpoint lanes and an overall improved passenger experience.
Parking and airport changes have already started to take effect in preparation for this expansion project, as RDU just closed one of their economy lots Friday to make it an employee-only parking lot.
ParkRDU Economy 4 lot near Interstate 540 and U.S. Highway 70 permanently closed on Friday to airport guests. Economy Lot 3 will expand from 3,800 parking spaces to around 11,000. A customer amenity building is also under construction at Economy 3 with restrooms, solar panels and electric vehicle chargers.