CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Work is expected to begin soon on a new entryway to the Transportation Security Administration's passenger screening area at Charleston's Yeager Airport.
The airport's governing board on Wednesday assigned its construction committee to identify the qualified low-bidder on a project to cut a hole through a wall near the current TSA screening entrance.
The new entryway will make it possible for an additional line of passenger screening to take place, dramatically speeding up the waiting time for passengers to clear security, airport officials said.
"The TSA will be able to nearly double their through-put at the screening area, going from 180 passengers an hour to more than 300," said Yeager Airport Director Rick Atkinson. The new screening lane will help reduce bottlenecks that often occur during the morning departure rush, and at times when low-cost carriers are boarding flights on their full-size aircraft, he said.
Also Wednesday, airport board members asked Atkinson to look into what it would take to reopen a section of the airport's recently closed crosswind runway to accommodate takeoffs by smaller general aviation aircraft.
The 4,750-foot runway was closed two years ago to accommodate runway setback requirements for the two new hangars at the 130th Airlift Wing and to add new hangar and tie-down space at the airport's general aviation area. While a segment of the runway will remain closed to meet those needs, a 2,900-foot expanse of the runway could be used as a departure strip for many single-engine and smaller twin-engine general aviation aircraft. The reopened section of the runway would be too short to accommodate landings.
Reopening the runway segment for private plane departures would save time and fuel for general aviation fliers, who now must taxi to the end of the main runway to take off.
Atkinson told board members that he and TSA officials have begun discussing ways to accommodate the surges in passenger traffic expected to occur during Scouting Jamborees at the Boy Scouts of America's Summit Bechtel Family Scouting Reserve in Fayette County.
Atkinson said the Charleston airport should have no difficulty accommodating the 20,000 Scouts expected to arrive annually to take part in the Summit's normal schedule of high adventure camp activities. But the airport will need to make special plans to handle the 50,000 or so Scouts arriving to participate in national Jamborees, which will take place once every four years at the Summit, starting in 2013.
The airport plans to develop a Boy Scouts of America display in Yeager's baggage pickup area.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.
