On Thursday, Atlanta leaders joined together to celebrate a major milestone in the new Concourse D expansion at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
From Tuesday night into Wednesday, construction crews worked hard to put in place the 19 modules.
“What an extraordinary feat of engineering it is to get that right,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, per Fox 5 Atlanta.
He praised the Republican-led state at Thursday’s ceremony to commemorate the placement of the first module.
He was joined by Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Balram “B” Bheodari, General Manager of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Concourse D – being one of the oldest and narrowest concourses at the Airport – has needed a major upgrade for years. When the new Concourse is complete, it will reportedly increase the square footage by 75%.
“It’s more accessible to passengers with disabilities…that extra 30 feet of width, so you don’t have to zigzag around other passengers to get to your gate. The thousand more seats mean more comfortable spots to wait for your flight. New restrooms double their previous size… And with that new concourse at the gates, it’ll be able to accommodate a modern fleet of bigger aircraft that are coming and going every day,” Buttigieg said.
The modules are being bult at a site about a mile away from the terminals and then are being moved into place one at a time at a speed of about 1.5 miles per hour.
While everyone has been celebrating the speed at which they were able to put the module in place, they also recognized this is just the first of many modules that they now have to slowly and carefully put into place.
“We got one down, 18 more to go, can’t wait to see how it all continues,” said Wayne Wadsworth, CEO of Holder Construction.
