Passengers using the new terminal at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport could board and disembark airplanes through glass boarding bridges instead of the steel tunnels common today — if their cost pencils favorably.
“It is a little different,” says Pat McCollom, program manager for AECOM, the Los Angeles consulting firm working with the city on the terminal project. “Around the world, they’re pretty common. In the United States, they’re not very common.”
McCollom and Victor White, director of airports, visited Santa Barbara (Calif.’s) airport in May to see its glass bridges.
“We love ‘em,” McCollom says. “You can look across the airfield, it’s not as claustrophobic as the steel tubes.”
The glass would be tinted.
The Wichita Airport Authority, which comprises the City Council, on Tuesday will consider approving a $135,758 supplemental agreement with HNTB Corp., which designed the new terminal, for engineering and architectural services to design 12 passenger bridges and ancillary equipment. These new bridges will be bid and contracted as a stand-alone project incorporated into the new terminal. The services include designing both glass- and steel-walled bridges, with the option to choose after bid, according to city documents.
The money has been in the budget to do the design, but Tuesday’s vote is to approve releasing the funding for the bridge design and to consider glass and steel options, McCollom says.
Either type of bridge is expected to cost about $700,000 to $750,000 each, he says, adding that the airport has heard varying costs for each type.
The airport also must consider the higher heating and cooling costs for glass bridges, he says. McCollom hopes to get more information on that from other airports with glass bridges, including Amarillo, Texas, which he and White also will visit.
